Russia may seek NATO force withdrawal at Ukraine talks

Russia may use the next round of US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine to secure concessions that weaken NATO.

This is reported by The Telegraph, citing diplomatic sources. It is possible that Moscow will demand that the alliance’s presence in Europe be reduced to the 1997 level.

That level corresponds to the period before former Eastern Bloc countries began joining NATO. According to the publication, this could mean the withdrawal of allied troops from Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland — all five countries border Russia. European officials say they still reject Moscow’s demands.

Russian Presidential Aide for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov said that Europe should join the trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian and American representatives. According to him, the continent “fully supports Kyiv” and cannot be left out when concluding any deal, The Telegraph reports.

Sources in diplomatic circles told the publication that Moscow is in fact counting on securing concessions on NATO enlargement, which Vladimir Putin called the “root cause” of the war. As Hromadske notes, Russia has not officially announced the NATO proposal as a new demand at the talks.

“Our position remains the same — the same as in January 2022,” one European official told The Telegraph.

He was referring to a letter from then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Moscow, which proposed discussing Russia’s concerns but ruled out the withdrawal of troops and nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics. European and Ukrainian officials said they were ready to discuss “the broader context of security mechanisms in Europe after the war,” the newspaper writes.

Talks scheduled for November

Putin agreed to resume talks at the technical level after a three-hour meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. According to Reuters, the Kremlin said the talks could take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10 or later and would focus on security guarantees for Ukraine and Russia after the war ends.

As the Kyiv Independent reported, on October 25 Ushakov told the state television channel Vesti that Moscow would be ready to return to the negotiating table after the holiday — National Unity Day on November 4. He also called the meeting a “trial run” and said he did not expect serious progress.

As AP notes, this will be the fourth round of talks mediated by the Trump administration — after meetings in Abu Dhabi and Geneva held earlier this year. Vladimir Zelensky said Kyiv is ready to discuss an energy truce, the protection of maritime grain shipments through the Black Sea and a prisoner exchange. According to the Kyiv Independent, he added that territorial issues should be decided by the leaders.

Fighting continues alongside diplomacy

Previous rounds of talks did not lead to a truce — mainly because Putin demands that Ukraine cede part of the Donbas that Russian troops do not control, The Telegraph reports.

On a smaller scale, the sides agreed to a local ceasefire in occupied Oleshky: the agreement was reached with the mediation of First Lady Melania Trump and is due to take effect on October 27, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, the strikes continue. According to the BBC, missiles hit Kyiv several hours after Moscow announced its readiness for talks, and according to The Telegraph, three people were killed in a drone attack on Belgorod over the weekend.