OMM Newsroom
Russian negotiators have put forward wide-ranging proposals during talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, including a demand for Finland to leave NATO, German newspaper Bild reported on Friday, according to Anadolu Agency.
The informal proposals, shared with European representatives in Abu Dhabi, extend beyond Ukraine and seek what the report described as “a new European security order”. Russian officials have continued to argue that Western governments once promised not to expand NATO eastward.
Under the proposals, Russia would retain all Ukrainian territory it currently occupies and receive the entire Donbas region. Ukraine would have to surrender the remaining parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that are still under its control.
The ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv would be demilitarized and barred from use as naval bases. Separate arrangements would guarantee freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.
The proposal also calls for Ukraine to remain permanently non-aligned, ruling out NATO membership while leaving open the possibility of joining the European Union.
It seeks to prohibit NATO military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and requires Finland to return to its status before joining the alliance.
For Moldova, the plan envisions a federal republic comprising the core Moldovan territory, Transnistria and Gagauzia. If Moldova joined the European Union, Transnistria and Gagauzia would be allowed to hold referendums on independence.
In return, Russia offers to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus and not to station intermediate-range missiles there, the report said.
