Russia Demands Finland Leave NATO in Abu Dhabi Talks, Bild Says

A German newspaper said Friday that Moscow’s negotiators used this week’s talks in the United Arab Emirates to float far-reaching conditions that would reshape security arrangements from the Black Sea to Finland’s border with Russia.

Bild reported that informal proposals, shared with European representatives in Abu Dhabi, seek what the daily called “a new European security order.” The paper said the plan originated in President Vladimir Putin’s circle.

Bild also stressed that the document is only one of several unofficial drafts, and that it remains unclear whether Putin has endorsed this version. Several groups of intermediaries, including some linked to the military, are reportedly competing.

Territorial and Naval Demands

According to Bild, Moscow would keep all Ukrainian territory it currently occupies and take control of the entire Donbas region. Ukraine would have to surrender the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk still held by Kyiv.

Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation, had already said after the talks that every inch of “Russian land” would be returned “one way or another,” and that Moscow saw no possibility of territorial exchanges.

The ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv would be demilitarized and barred from use as naval bases, the paper said. Separate arrangements would guarantee freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Ukraine would have to remain permanently non-aligned and abandon its bid to join NATO, while the possibility of European Union membership would be left open.

NATO, Finland and the Baltics

Bild said the plan would ban NATO military bases in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and require Finland to leave the alliance and return to its pre-membership status.

No official in Helsinki, the Baltic capitals, NATO headquarters, Moscow or Kyiv has publicly confirmed or denied the account.

Moldova Plan and Moscow’s Offers

Bild said Russia also proposed turning Moldova into a federal republic made up of the country’s core territory, Transnistria and Gagauzia. If Moldova were to join the EU, those two regions would be allowed to hold referendums on independence.

In return, the Russian side offered to withdraw nuclear weapons from Belarus and refrain from deploying intermediate-range missiles there. Accounts of the report also said Moscow offered to pull its troops out of Transnistria.

Talks Leave Core Disputes Open

The meetings in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11 brought together representatives of Russia, the United States and Ukraine, with European officials present in the city but outside the main trilateral sessions.

The sides agreed in principle on a large-scale prisoner exchange. U.S. envoys later asked Moscow to submit a new European security proposal rather than revive earlier demands.

The American envoys later held follow-up meetings with Putin in Moscow and with Zelensky in Dublin.