Putin dreams of a Yalta 1945-style deal as Russia issues new demands
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (photo: Vitalii Nosach/RBC-Ukraine)
Russia has failed to achieve its goals in its invasion of Ukraine and therefore has no grounds to demand a revision of Europe's security order, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says.
"Putin is floating ideas about redrawing Europe's security order. In his dreams, he sees himself at Yalta in 1945. The problem is that to put forward ideas on such a scale, you first have to win a world war," Sybiha noted.
He recalled that Russia had spent four years and eight months trying to "almost capture" the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Moreover, Russia has lost more than 1.6 million troops, killed and wounded, but has still failed to achieve any of its invasion objectives.
In October alone, it lost 54,400 troops, while Ukraine liberated more territory than Russia managed to capture.
"At this stage, the most Putin can negotiate is a ceasefire along the current line of contact, not spheres of influence in Europe," the minister stressed.
In his view, Europe does not need a new security order.
"It already exists, and Russia keeps violating it. The best plan for a safe and free Europe is to end Russian aggression against Ukraine," the foreign minister said.
Earlier, media outlets reported that Russia was once again demanding that NATO withdraw its forces to the positions the Alliance held in 1997. This is part of Moscow's broader demands to revise the entire European security architecture.
Bild also reported that Russia was demanding that Finland leave NATO and that the Alliance abandon plans to deploy bases in the Baltic states as conditions for ending the war in Ukraine. However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied the report, saying no such conditions had been put forward.
In addition, media reports say Russia has proposed that the United States return to a "Cold War"-style relationship and divide Europe into spheres of influence.
