The Kremlin has sent off a list of demands for a peace deal in Ukraine — even as European intelligence agencies warned Russian strongman Vladimir Putin may just be playing for time and trying to sow dischord.
On Thursday, Putin rejected the US-Ukraine cease-fire proposal, saying. “We agree with proposals to cease hostilities [in Ukraine], but this cessation must lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the root cause of the initial crisis,” he said, without defining what he felt was the “cause.”
The address followed his meeting with President Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, who arrived in Moscow to discuss the terms of the deal following his talks with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visits a command centre of the Russian armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, Russia, March 12, 2025. via REUTERSWitkoff was expected to be given the list of demands that Russian and American officials discussed the terms during in-person and virtual conversations over the last three weeks, two people familiar with the talks told Reuters.
While it remains unclear what exactly is included in the list, experts believe Moscow will likely push for its previous demands to exclude Ukraine from NATO, allow Russia to keep all its conquered territory and to keep foreign troops out of the region.
In previous peace talks, Russia has called on Ukraine to give up its NATO ambitions and accept a permanent status as a nuclear-free nation.
The Kremlin has also demanded a veto on other nations’ commitment to assist Ukraine in the event of all-out war in the region.
Kyiv officials have said the demands would only leave Ukraine vulnerable to yet another Russian invasion in the future.
Russia retook the town of Sudzha in Ukraine this week. Ana Gioia/NY Post Deesign
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he attends a press conference, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 12, 2025. REUTERSMoscow has also called the US and NATO to restrict its military operations from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and ban military exercises in the territories of new alliance members.
With the Kremlin reiterating its same demands since its invasion of the Ukraine began in February 2022, US experts fear Putin has no plans to actively engage in the cease-fire talks.
“There’s no sign that the Russians are willing to make any concessions,” said Angela Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was the top US intelligence analyst for Russia and Eurasia.
Putin launches drone strikes on Kyiv hours after Trump challenged him to ‘tango’ and agree Ukraine ceasefire as pressure mounts on Kremlin to back down. State Emergency Service of Ukraine“The demands haven’t changed at all. I think they are not really interested in peace or a meaningful ceasefire,” she added.
Those fears were compounded following reports from European intelligence services alleging that Russia plans to drag out the Trump-led peace talks so that “a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis cannot happen before 2026,” the Washington Post reports.
The report reviews documents written by an influential Moscow think tank with ties to Russia’s Federal Security Service, outlining ways Russia could benefit from raising tensions among the US, China and the EU to derail Trump’s position to negotiate peace.
As Witkoff engages with Putin and Moscow officials, it remains unclear what his approach will be when negotiating peace and a resetting of US-Russia relations.
The Trump administration appears split on its approach to the former, with Witkoff touting the previous administration’s 2022 peace talks in Istanbul as “a guidepost to get a peace deal done.”
Trump’s top Ukraine and Russia envoy, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, however, said the Istanbul agreement cannot serve as a starting point and that negotiators would “have to develop something entirely new.”
With Post wires
