President Vladimir Putin is again putting on the table Russia's December 2021 "draft treaties" with the United States and NATO, demands that would have blocked further eastward enlargement and rolled back alliance infrastructure in central and eastern Europe, Steve Rosenberg reported for the BBC, after Kremlin talks with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Moscow has said a prerequisite for peace is "a new, long-term architecture of indivisible security and peace." Western leaders dismissed the 2021 drafts as an unacceptable ultimatum, and two months later Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The proposals were shelved; they are now being quoted again. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign-policy aide, has suggested Moscow is about to "add certain new considerations" to its list of demands in light of Western efforts "to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia."

The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called the demand for a new European security architecture a "trap" designed to "shift attention away from a ceasefire." "The sequencing of Ukraine-Russia talks is important," she wrote. "The priority should be securing a ceasefire, followed by a peace agreement. Only then can there be discussions on Europe's wider security architecture." Europe is not currently at the table. This week's talks in Abu Dhabi involved Ukraine, Russia and the United States. After the Moscow meetings, Witkoff indicated that Putin had agreed to the idea of European representatives joining the next round, but on Friday the Kremlin said a final decision had not been taken. "Once we understand their true intentions and their readiness to facilitate the peace process, then it will be possible to take a decision about dialogue on Ukraine in a wider format," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Rosenberg described Putin as uncompromising and confident: American envoys are seeking a deal, European leaders have contemplated contacts, and Norway's and Finland's leaders reached out last month. Next week in Shenzhen, on the sidelines of the APEC summit, Putin may have a separate meeting with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, a possible encounter already reported as a plan, not as a completed summit. Russian media have compared the three to the "Big Three" of 1945, a comparison the BBC report records, not an established diplomatic fact. After nearly five years of war, Rosenberg noted, Russia has suffered huge battlefield losses, its economy is under pressure, and Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries have raised fears of fuel shortages, none of which has yet convinced the Kremlin to end the fighting. Putin still speaks of wishing "eternal peace" for Ukraine while rejecting a comprehensive ceasefire.

The verified news is the revival of the 2021 draft-treaty demands, Ushakov's hint of additions, Kallas's warning, and the unresolved question of a European seat at talks. It is not a signed peace deal, and it is not a completed trilateral meeting in Shenzhen.