Russia asks NATO to withdraw to 1997 positions in Ukraine talks, per NYT document

The US offer and Kyiv's reply

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin and then Zelensky in Dublin in the days before 14 November. Negotiators reportedly proposed that Ukraine withdraw its remaining forces from the Donbas in return for NATO membership. Zelensky confirmed the offer publicly, saying Ukrainians would have the final word on any arrangement touching the Donbas, but only if a security package with guarantees for Kyiv is agreed. He said that if the United States and NATO members confirmed the offer and provided guarantees, Kyiv could put it to public opinion, possibly through a referendum. He also said legal recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Donbas is not up for discussion, and warned that Putin's signals made the talks extremely difficult. The Kremlin insists on a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donbas, including Donetsk and Luhansk. According to the BBC, Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The 10 November document

The New York Times obtained an unheaded, unsigned non-paper dated 10 November, which Russian officials circulated at the Abu Dhabi talks. It asks NATO to return to its 1997 positions, rule out any further expansion and halt any military activity in Ukraine and across Eastern Europe, the southern Caucasus and Central Asia. It also calls for an end to Western weapons supplies to Ukraine, and says Russia would accept Ukraine joining the EU only if Kyiv stayed out of the bloc's common defence policy. Bild reported that the withdrawal would cover Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria. Going further than its December 2021 demands, the document asks France and the United Kingdom to rule out using their nuclear arsenals to protect other European countries. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, said Moscow is seeking a return to NATO's 1997 military presence. Two people present at the talks said Putin could still show flexibility, and the paper is Russia's opening position.

Background to the 1997 demand

Russia first set out these demands in December 2021, two months before the full-scale invasion. NATO and Russia signed their founding act in Paris on 27 May 1997, before the alliance began its eastward enlargement. In February 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not move an inch east, and Helmut Kohl and Hans-Dietrich Genscher gave similar assurances, but nothing was put in writing. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined in 1999, followed by seven states in 2004, the largest enlargement in the alliance's history.

Finland joined in 2023 and Sweden in 2024, bringing NATO to 32 members, compared with 16 in 1997.

199716

After Sweden joined in 202432

1997

16 members

After Sweden joined in 2024

32 members

Data from the article text

Membership rules and open questions

NATO membership requires a unanimous vote of existing members. Sweden needed about a year and a half of diplomacy to win Turkey's approval. Earlier this month, Russian diplomats had set the cession of the Donbas and the dropping of NATO membership as minimum conditions for a ceasefire. The Americans urged the Russians to look to the future, noting that the world has changed since 2021. Zelensky has said Finland and Sweden could end up at the centre of Moscow's demands. Under the US proposal, the Donbas question would only be settled once a security package with guarantees for Kyiv is in place.