What We Know About Putin's New Demands in Ukraine Peace Talks

Russia's Kremlin says lasting peace in Ukraine depends on rewriting Europe's post-Cold War security arrangements, a condition President Vladimir Putin raised in talks with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg, reporting from Moscow.

The Kremlin, after the Witkoff-Kushner meeting, called for "a new, long-term architecture of indivisible security and peace," Rosenberg reported. He writes that in Kremlin usage, the phrase means Moscow wants to change Europe's security structure in ways that benefit Russia, and that the shift under discussion would be among the largest to the continent's security order since the end of the Cold War.

What is Russia demanding before any ceasefire?

Moscow has revived its December 2021 proposal for "draft treaties" with the United States and NATO, Rosenberg reports. Those treaties would have barred Ukraine and Georgia from ever joining NATO and required the alliance to withdraw military infrastructure from central and eastern European member states that joined after the Soviet Union's dissolution. Western governments rejected the 2021 proposal as an unacceptable ultimatum; two months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the draft treaties were shelved, according to Rosenberg.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, has indicated Moscow plans to add "certain new considerations" to its list of demands, citing what he described as Western efforts "to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia," Rosenberg reports. Putin has said he wishes "eternal peace" for Ukraine while continuing to reject a comprehensive ceasefire, according to the BBC report.

Why does Moscow view this as a victory already?

Russian state-aligned media frames the mere presence of European security questions in current negotiations as a win independent of any final deal. The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote this week: "In December 2021 Russia actively proposed that NATO rethink the security system in Europe. Our proposals were almost laughed at. Having secured one victory by forcing the West to think about security, our diplomats need a second by making the West heed Russia's concerns about NATO enlargement."

Rosenberg writes that the reappearance of the 2021 framework in current talks is seen in Moscow as confirmation that its original position has gained ground, regardless of whether Western governments ultimately accept the specific terms.

What does Europe say about the demand?

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has called Russia's push for a new European security architecture a "trap" meant to "shift attention away from a ceasefire," she wrote on social media, as cited by Rosenberg. Kallas argued for a strict order of operations: "The sequencing of Ukraine-Russia talks is important. The priority should be securing a ceasefire, followed by a peace agreement. Only then can there be discussions on Europe's wider security architecture."

Europe's difficulty, according to Rosenberg, is that it has not been seated at the negotiating table Moscow has convened. Russia has criticized European leaders over their military support for Kyiv and their stance toward Moscow, and has shown no interest in giving European governments a direct role, the report says.

What happened at this week's Abu Dhabi talks?

This week's peace talks in Abu Dhabi involved Ukraine, Russia and the United States, Rosenberg reports. After meeting Putin in Moscow, Witkoff signaled that the Russian president had agreed in principle to European representatives joining the next round of talks. By Friday, however, the Kremlin had signaled a different position, according to the report, underscoring the gap between stated openness to European participation and Moscow's actual negotiating posture.

Data points behind the dispute

• Nearly five years: the length of time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, as cited by Rosenberg in his November report.
• December 2021: when Moscow first floated the "draft treaties" with the U.S. and NATO that it has now put back on the table, according to the Kremlin's own framing as reported by the BBC.

Timeline: From the 2021 draft treaties to this week's talks

• December 2021: Russia proposes draft security treaties with the U.S. and NATO, demanding guarantees against Ukrainian and Georgian membership and a rollback of NATO infrastructure in central and eastern Europe. Western governments reject the terms.
• Roughly two months later: Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the draft treaties are set aside.
• This week: U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet Putin in Moscow. The Kremlin calls afterward for a "new, long-term architecture of indivisible security and peace" and references the 2021 draft treaties again.
• This week, Abu Dhabi: Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. hold peace talks without direct European participation.
• Friday: The Kremlin signals a shift from Witkoff's earlier indication that Putin had agreed to European representatives joining the next round of talks.

The gap between Moscow's demands and Kyiv's allies' preferred sequencing remains unresolved. Kallas has pressed for a ceasefire first, with security-architecture talks to follow; the Kremlin has pushed the broader European question to the front of the agenda, with Russian commentary treating that positioning itself as a diplomatic gain, according to Rosenberg's reporting from Moscow.

Full reporting: BBC News, Steve Rosenberg.