Rosenberg: Uncompromising Putin ups demands for peace with Ukraine

What the report says

BBC World News says Kremlin officials are using talks on Ukraine to revive a broader push for changes to Europe’s security order, a stance Moscow presents as part of the path to peace. In a commentary from Moscow, BBC Russia editor Steve Rosenberg says President Vladimir Putin has sounded confident and uncompromising in discussions with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

According to the report, the Kremlin says any settlement must include a new, long-term security architecture for Europe. That language echoes Russia’s December 2021 demands, which sought guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia would not join Nato and would roll back some alliance infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. Western governments previously rejected those proposals, and Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two months later.

The BBC says Moscow now regards the very fact that European security is being discussed alongside Ukraine as a diplomatic win. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned that such demands could be a trap that diverts attention from a ceasefire. She argues that a ceasefire should come first, followed by a peace deal, and only then wider talks on European security.

The article also notes that Europe is not directly represented in the current format of negotiations, though there are signs that its role may be debated in future rounds. The piece places these talks in the context of continuing war, battlefield losses, economic strain in Russia and ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks, while saying none of that has yet shifted the Kremlin’s position.