Bild reports Russian demands on Finland, NATO bases and Donbas; Kremlin denies Finland exit

Russia's reported demands

According to Bild, Russia has put wide-ranging demands on the table in informal talks with European representatives in Abu Dhabi. The German newspaper says the proposals reach well beyond Ukraine's borders and aim at a new European security order as Moscow envisions it. The report was published on Friday, 13 November 2026, and Bild stressed that it is only one of several proposals circulating in informal negotiating circles. It remains unclear which of these proposals, if any, Vladimir Putin personally backs.

On Ukraine, the proposal reportedly has Russia keeping all Ukrainian territory it already controls and receiving the remaining parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that are still under Kyiv's control, which would give it the whole Donbas region. Ukraine would have to stay permanently non-aligned, ruling out NATO membership while keeping the door to European Union membership open. The ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv would be demilitarised and barred from use as naval bases. In return, separate agreements would reportedly guarantee freedom of navigation in both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Baltic bases, Finland and Moldova

The report says Moscow also wants NATO military bases removed from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and that Finland should return to the status it had before joining the alliance. Finland joined NATO in April 2023 and Sweden followed in March 2024. For Moldova, the plan reportedly foresees a federal democracy made up of the main territory, Transnistria and Gagauzia. If Moldova joins the European Union, Transnistria and Gagauzia would have the right to hold referendums on independence.

Belarus appears in the package too. According to the report, Russia offers to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus and to forgo stationing medium-range missiles there. The report also says Russian officials keep arguing that Western governments once promised not to expand NATO eastward.

Kremlin and Helsinki reject the claims

Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen, a member of the National Coalition Party, said leaving NATO is not up for discussion. He recalled that Moscow has pressed similar claims for years, including in 2021, and he doubted that Russia seeks an honest deal. He argued instead that Moscow is widening the agenda to cover European security and NATO's role.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that Russia had asked Finland to leave NATO. He said he knew nothing about such a demand and that no such conditions were set or discussed. The Finland element appeared in the early version of the Bild account before the denial, while the other elements remained in the report.

Talks and Zelensky's position

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled from Abu Dhabi to Moscow to speak with Putin, then went to Dublin to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Abu Dhabi talks produced an agreement in principle for a large-scale prisoner exchange, but no substantive progress on a ceasefire or on territorial questions.

Zelensky spoke to Sona Murray of Euronews after meeting the envoys on the evening of 12 November 2026. He said much depends on when and how the war ends, and that steps on Europe's security architecture would follow only after the war ends and Ukraine receives security guarantees. He argued that Ukraine is already part of Europe's security architecture and that its possible NATO membership would shape the form of future arrangements.

Dates behind the story

The Bild account and the denials of 13 November 2026 come after Finland joined NATO in April 2023 and Sweden joined in March 2024. The timeline below lists the dates cited in the coverage.