The EU has laid out a sweeping list of demands for Russia as part of any Ukraine peace deal, going far beyond the battlefield to target Moscow's military presence across the region and its domestic political system. The document, circulated by EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas among member states, was reported by RFE/RL on 17 February.
Brussels demands mirror concessions from Moscow
The discussion paper, titled European Core Interests in Ensuring a Comprehensive, Just and Lasting Peace and Continent's Security, states that peace and security are impossible "without the EU at the negotiating table and without taking into account [the] EU's core interests." Its central argument: if Ukraine is expected to cap troop levels or withdraw from certain areas during US-mediated talks, Russia must do the same.
The document demands no de jure recognition of occupied Ukrainian territories and calls for their demilitarization. One EU diplomat told RFE/RL the paper deliberately mirrors the Kremlin's own approach:
"We pay back to Russian maximalists demands on Ukraine."
Another European official familiar with the text said:
"Getting to peace isn't all about Ukraine conceding. We also have to talk about what Russia must do, ahead of sending any envoy there."
Troops out of four countries, nukes out of Belarus
A chapter titled A Secure and Stable Europe demands that Russia stop "disinformation campaigns, sabotage, cyber-attacks, airspace violations and interference in elections on European territory and in neighbouring countries." It also demands the removal of nuclear weapons from Belarus and a "ban of Russian military presence and deployments in Belarus, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Armenia."
Russian troops have been stationed for decades in breakaway regions like Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria, as well as at bases in Armenia and Belarus.
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Reparations, war crimes accountability, and domestic reform
On international law, the EU demands no blanket amnesty for war crimes, access for international investigators to suspected war crime sites, and that no domestic Russian law take precedence over international treaties. Russia "must compensate and contribute to Ukraine's reconstruction, for damages to European states and European companies, and for ecological damages it has caused," the paper states.
Brussels has frozen some €210 billion in Russian sovereign wealth assets but has yet to find a legal way to confiscate or leverage them for Ukraine. The EU has, so far, only sent quarterly windfall profits from these assets to Ukraine.
The document also calls for free and fair elections in Russia and the release of all political prisoners, return of deported civilians and children.
EU ambassadors were set to discuss the paper on 17 February. Parts of it may come up for debate when the bloc's foreign ministers meet in Brussels on 23 February.
