Moscow’s demands to Kyiv: all of Donbas and no Western troops in Ukraine
REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov
The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine cede control of the entire Donbas region, renounce its NATO aspirations, and bar foreign troops from its territory, Reuters reported on Aug. 21, citing two people familiar with Moscow’s position.
According to the report, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin revised his territorial demands during the Aug. 15 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Previously, he had sought to annex four Ukrainian oblasts: Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Zaporizhzhya and Kherson in the south.
Under the new proposal, Russia would be content with what it currently occupies in Zaporizhzhya and Kherson if Ukraine withdraws its forces from all of Donbas. The sources added that Moscow is also prepared to return the slivers of land it controls in Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
Putin is also insisting on a legally binding agreement to guarantee that NATO will not expand eastward, in addition to Ukraine amending its constitution to remove any mention of pursuing membership in the alliance.
Russia further demands limits on the size of the Ukrainian military and a ban on Western troops as part of any peacekeeping deployment.
Following the Trump–Putin meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine will never surrender its land, explicitly ruling out withdrawing from the heavily fortified battlefield positions in Donbas.
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