Russia has sent an informal diplomatic document to the United States outlining its conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, repeating demands that contradict President Donald Trump's proposal to freeze the conflict along current front lines, Reuters reported on 22 October, citing two US officials and a person familiar with the situation.
The communique, known in diplomatic parlance as a "non-paper," was delivered over the weekend and restates Moscow's insistence on taking control of all of Ukraine's Donbas Oblast, according to one of the US officials. The document also reaffirms Russia's demand that no NATO troops be deployed to Ukraine under any peace agreement.
The demands clash with Trump's public position on resolving the war. The US president has claimed for a ceasefire based on current battlefield positions.
"We believe that what they should do is just stop on those lines where they are now, on the front lines. The rest is very difficult to discuss if you're going to say: 'You take this, we take that,'" Trump told reporters.
However, Trump said on 21 October that he still believes an agreement along current lines remains possible, despite Russia's maximalist position. He told reporters he had not made a final determination about a potential summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin but did not want to have a "wasted meeting."
A White House official told Reuters on 21 October there were no plans for a Trump-Putin meeting "in the immediate future." The proposed summit in Budapest, which Trump had suggested could take place within two weeks following a Thursday phone call with Putin, now appears increasingly uncertain.
The non-paper underscores the gap between the parties' positions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to cede any territory to Moscow. At a private meeting with Zelenskyy on 17 October, US officials presented a Kremlin-proposed plan that would give Russia the Donbas Oblast in exchange for small parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, Reuters and other media outlets reported. Zelenskyy rejected the proposal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that Moscow's position on Trump's proposal to freeze the front line as a basis for negotiations has not changed.
Trump had previously denied calling on Zelenskyy to surrender all of Donbas Oblast, instead emphasizing his support for freezing the war at current positions.
