Russia's Demands to End the War in Ukraine Are Ridiculous

Wednesday, I pointed out that the trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, which took place in the UAE this week, were not a rousing success. The end result was an agreement to have a prisoner swap, something that has already happened many times before.

My own take on the negotiations was that they would go nowhere precisely because Russia had no interest in ending the war.

Russia spent the week insulting the Europeans as useless bystanders and offering nothing like a serious proposal. After the past two days it should be clear to everyone who is the main obstacle to a deal.

In fact, Russia's chief negotiator quoted Putin saying, "wherever the foot of our Russian soldier has stepped, that is ours." And that was after the negotiations.

Today, a German newspaper called Bild has published a story laying out the demands the Russians made during the talks. Those demands go way beyond seizing territory where Russian soldiers have stepped.

German newspaper Bild reports that Russian negotiators have put forward far-reaching demands in talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. They include that Finland withdraw from Nato and that the alliance be barred from having military bases in the Baltic states.

Bild said on Friday that the proposal would also leave Russia in control of all the Ukrainian territory it currently occupies and give it the whole of the Donbas region...

Bild reported that the proposal originated from within Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. It said the unofficial proposals presented to European representatives in Abu Dhabi go well beyond the question of Ukrainian territory and aim at a new European security order.

Needless to say, these demands didn't go over well in Finland.

German newspaper Bild reported that Russian negotiators had presented an unofficial proposal in Abu Dhabi seeking to reverse Finland's Nato membership and restrict the alliance's military presence in Eastern Europe...

Bild said European representatives had received the proposal during informal discussions alongside negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Moscow had demanded Finland's withdrawal from Nato...

Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said the reported demand was unacceptable and stressed that Finland's membership was not a subject for peace negotiations.

"Such matters are not open to negotiation under any circumstances. Even suggesting something like that is absolutely outrageous," Häkkänen told reporters.

Russian denials are usually not worth anything. Other accounts suggest that this proposal may have been just one of several being circulated.

BILD stressed that the reported plan is only one of several proposals circulating in informal negotiating circles. It remains unclear which, if any, of the proposals Russian President Vladimir Putin personally supports.

So did this come from Putin's inner circle or not? Probably it did but it was passed along in such a way to provide plausible deniability. That's usually how Russia operates.

Regardless of how and why this proposal was circulated, the ISW says Russia's demands during the negotiations show nothing has changed in their position since 2021.

An informed source told Ukrainian outlet RBC Ukraine on November 11 that Russian negotiators in Abu Dhabi refused to discuss meaningful ceasefires or concessions with Ukraine and insisted on focusing talks on the Kremlin’s December 2021 demands to halt NATO’s eastward expansion; give Russia a veto over military deployments to countries that joined NATO after 1997; refrain from military activity in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia; and refrain from deploying intermediate-range missiles within range of Russian territory.[14] The 2021 ultimatums also demanded that the United States commit to upholding the ban on NATO enlargement and refrain from deploying weapons in Europe. Two sources familiar with the matter told Axios on November 11, however, that Kushner and Witkoff told Russian negotiators that the situation in the world has changed significantly since 2021 and that Russia should draft a new peace proposal that would lay out Russian steps to de-escalate and ensure Russia does not renew aggression against Ukraine and Europe.[15] Russian negotiators’ continued insistence on Putin’s 2021 demands directly contradicts Witkoff and Kushner’s reported position and demonstrates that the Kremlin has no interest in serious negotiations to end its war in Ukraine.

Russia's demands, even the ones they don't deny making, are ridiculous. They can demand territory they don't even control but no one should rush to give them what they want. 

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