️🇷🇺🇬🇧🇺🇦🇪🇺 - Russia has demanded Britain end its commitment to extend its nuclear deterrent to its NATO allies in Europe as part of Moscow's terms for a peace deal in Ukraine, according to a Russian policy document dated Nov. 10, The Telegraph.
️ The document also calls on NATO to withdraw its forces from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, to exclude Finland from the alliance, to rule out the deployment of forces in Ukraine, and to stop all Western arms supplies to Kiev. Moscow also demands that Ukraine be banned from NATO, while maintaining the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces.
️ In return, Russia could accept Ukraine's accession to the European Union, provided that Kiev remains outside the bloc's common defense policy. The demands also revive Moscow's earlier call for NATO to return its military presence to the alliance's 1997 borders. ️ The document reportedly represents Russia's opening position for future negotiations involving US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. However, European officials rejected the idea of allowing Moscow to determine Europe's security arrangements.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Europe's security architecture is not up for negotiation with Russia. Finland's defense minister, Antti Haakkanen, also ruled out discussing the country's NATO membership, while Estonia's foreign minister, Margus Tsakana, said European security decisions belong to Europeans.
️ Meanwhile, European leaders have agreed that representatives from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the European Union and NATO should participate in any future peace negotiations.
️ Separately, US negotiators have made a proposal that Ukraine could join NATO in exchange for withdrawal from the eastern Donbass region. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would consider presenting such a proposal to the Ukrainian public if he received official US approval and support from European NATO allies and Canada.
Russia currently controls about 80% of the Donbass, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and insisted that Ukraine must give up the remaining territory it was unable to conquer militarily.