Russia seeks NATO rollback and sanctions relief in Ukraine peace talks – report
Vladimir Putin is reportedly demanding the formal exclusion of former Soviet states — including Georgia and Moldova — from ever joining NATO in exchange for ending the war in Ukraine
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Reuters reported the information, citing sources familiar with high-level Kremlin thinking.
"Putin is ready to make peace but not at any price," said a senior Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the report, Putin seeks a written commitment from major Western powers not to expand NATO eastward — formally excluding Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other former Soviet republics from membership.
Russia also wants Ukraine to adopt a neutral status, for some Western sanctions to be lifted, for the issue of frozen Russian sovereign assets in the West to be resolved, and for Russian-speaking Ukrainians to receive “protection,” the source said.
"If Putin realizes he is unable to reach a peace deal on his own terms, he will seek to show the Ukrainians and the Europeans by military victories that 'peace tomorrow will be even more painful,'" Reuters quoted the source as saying.
- Special representative of the U.S. president, Keith Kellogg, said on May 27 that Washington has received a document containing conditions for peace from Ukraine and is now awaiting a memorandum from the Russian side.
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