Russia will settle for nothing less than a demilitarized Ukraine and the annexation of 20% of the nation in any peace settlement, Russia's foreign minister said in an interview, demands that would suggest President Vladimir Putin is flouting President Donald Trump's call for peace to end the three-year war, according to multiple reports.
Days after Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Brazilian newspaper O Globo that "the international recognition of Crimea, Sevastopol, (Donetsk), (Luhansk), Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as part of Russia," adding Ukraine itself must recognize 20% of its country as sovereign Russian territory.
"All the commitments (Kyiv) assumes must be legally binding, contain enforcement mechanisms and be permanent," Lavrov told the outlet.
Lavrov's comments published Monday came one day after Trump urged Russia to halt its attacks and suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would give up Crimea — seized by Russia in 2014 — in peace discussions.
Lavrov's demands took it much farther than that, demanding the regions that Russia declared as annexed in 2022 but does not control.
However, Lavrov's demands were not part of Russia's original demands in 2021.
"The Kremlin is now explicitly demanding all of Kherson and Zaporizhia, which was not part of the 2021 demands," George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War told the New York Post. "Bottom line, the Kremlin is rejecting Trump's proposals and articulating goals that require the war to go on or for Ukraine to surrender things for no reason."
Also, Lavrov demanded that Ukraine never join NATO and that all sanctions against Russia be lifted, all frozen assets be returned, and arrest warrants against Putin be dropped.
The demands didn't end there.
"We will also insist on obtaining solid security guarantees for the Russian Federation in order to shield it from any threats emanating from hostile activities by NATO, the European Union and some of their member states along our western border," Lavrov said.
The Kremlin called Putin's meeting with Witkoff on Friday "quite useful." Lavrov told O Globo that the U.S. "has begun to better understand" Russia's positions.