Putin ready to end Ukraine war but wants a ‘no expansion’ written pledge from Nato: Report

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has said that the end of the war in Ukraine rests on the halt of Nato’s expansion, according to a report.

For decades, Putin has justified Russian aggression against other nations as a response to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).

Reuters has cited three Russian sources to report that Putin has said that one of Putin’s conditions to end the war in Ukraine is a written pledge that Nato would stop its eastward expansion.

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Putin has maintained for years that Ukraine should not become a member of the bloc — it is one of the numerous maximalist demands that Putin and his top aides have repeated during the ongoing war. He has found support for such a stand in US President Donald Trump who has long falsely held Nato, his predecessor Joe Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the ongoing war.

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These are Putin’s conditions to end war

Putin wants a written pledge by major Western powers to stop the eastward expansion of Nato as a condition for the end of the war, according to Reuters.

This means that the Nato membership for Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other former Soviet republics would be off the table.

The news agency has further reported that Putin also wants Ukraine to be neutral, the lifting of sanctions, a resolution to the issue of frozen Russian assets, and protection of Russian speakers in Ukraine.

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A source pitched these demands as a ’take it or leave it’ set of demands and told Reuters that if the West would not accept these demands, Putin would seek to show the Ukrainians and Europeans by military victories that “peace tomorrow will be even more painful”.

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The source further said that Putin would push further into Ukraine if he would see a tactical opportunity. They added that the Kremlin believes that Russia could fight the war for years irrespective of the sanctions in place.

A second source said that Putin is now less inclined to compromise on territory and wants the entirety of the four regions that he has claimed — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Putin sticks to maximalist demands

Such demands show that Putin is not in a mood to negotiate and is sticking to his long-held maximalist demands.

After talks with US President Donald Trump last week, Putin said that he was willing to draft a memorandum with Ukraine for the peace process but maintained that “root causes” would have to be addressed for the war to end.

“Root causes” is a euphemism that Putin and his aides have used for maximalist demands, such as the recognition of all Ukrainian provinces in their entirety that Russia has annexed and other territories that it controls; the ouster of Zelenskyy and his administration; amendment of the Ukrainian constitution to put limits on its military, include Russian in the nation’s cultural affairs, and rule out its membership of Nato; put limits on foreign military partnerships of Ukraine; etc.

Some of these conditions, such as the issue of the Russian language, Nato membership, and occupied territory, are mentioned by Reuters as well.