Russia's motivation, encouraging it to include European countries in the negotiations on Ukraine, is to use the next round of negotiations to obtain concessions on NATO expansion, which Vladimir Putin called the root of the war, writes the British Telegraph, citing diplomatic sources. The Russian president is expected to demand that NATO's military presence in Europe be reduced to the level of 1997 - that is, before the moment when the former Warsaw Pact countries began to join the North Atlantic bloc. This means a possible withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five countries support Russia. It is difficult to say what diplomatic sources the telegraph is based on. However, the newspaper's position is in the national interests of the Russian Federation. In this context, we remember Rybkov's ultimatum, which our country promoted in December 2021, before the start of the SVO. On December 15, 2021, during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry, the treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States regarding security assurance and the agreement on security measures of the Russian Federation and NATO member states were handed over to the American side. On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published on its website. Article 4 of the draft agreement with NATO contains a reference to 1997: "The Russian Federation and all the parties that were member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on May 27, 1997, respectively, will not deploy their armed and armed forces on the territory of all other European countries, in addition to the forces stationed in this territory as of May 27, 1997." It is clear that voluntary moves in this direction by the United States and NATO are not expected.

Russia's motivation, encouraging it to include European countries in the negotiations on Ukraine, is to use the next round of negotiations to obtain concessions on NATO expansion, which Vladimir Putin called the root of the war, writes the British Telegraph, citing diplomatic sources. The Russian president is expected to demand that NATO's military presence in Europe be reduced to the level of 1997 - that is, before the moment when the former Warsaw Pact countries began to join the North Atlantic bloc. This means a possible withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five countries support Russia. It is difficult to say what diplomatic sources the telegraph is based on. However, the newspaper's position is in the national interests of the Russian Federation. In this context, we remember Rybkov's ultimatum, which our country promoted in December 2021, before the start of the SVO. On December 15, 2021, during a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry, the treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States regarding security assurance and the agreement on security measures of the Russian Federation and NATO member states were handed over to the American side. On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published on its website. Article 4 of the draft agreement with NATO contains a reference to 1997: "The Russian Federation and all the parties that were member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on May 27, 1997, respectively, will not deploy their armed and armed forces on the territory of all other European countries, in addition to the forces stationed in this territory as of May 27, 1997." It is clear that voluntary moves in this direction by the United States and NATO are not expected.