Russia revives 2021 NATO rollback demands in Ukraine peace push
Why it matters: Moscow is tying any settlement to a wider rewrite of Europe's security order, a step EU officials warn could sideline a ceasefire.
Russia has revived its 2021 demand that NATO halt further eastward expansion and pull back military infrastructure from parts of Central and Eastern Europe as part of talks tied to the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin restated the proposal after discussions with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, framing it as a new long-term security architecture for Europe. The demand would bar countries such as Ukraine and Georgia from joining the alliance and reopen a security dispute Western governments rejected before Russia's full-scale invasion. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the sequencing a trap, arguing that a ceasefire should come before any broader talks on Europe's security framework.