Nick Schifrin:
The last time Ukraine and Russia negotiated, in March 2022, in the exact same location as today’s talks, Russia demanded caps on Ukraine’s military, the ending of Western support, the end of Ukraine’s NATO dreams, and the dissolution of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
Today, Russia reportedly expanded its demands to include Ukrainian withdrawal from four regions that are under partial Russian control, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson, and Luhansk, and buffer zones in other provinces of Sumy, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said today that, compared to 2022, Moscow wanted more.
Vladimir Medinsky, Head of Russian Delegation (through interpreter): It was a little bit tougher in relation to the realities on the ground.
