Russia will attempt to use a fresh round of Ukraine peace talks to secure concessions that weaken NATO’s defences.

Axar.az reports, citing The Telegraph, that Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, said Europe should be included in the negotiations between Russian, Ukrainian and American officials because the Continent would be crucial to reaching an agreement.

But diplomatic sources told The Telegraph that Russia’s motive for including European nations was to use the next round of talks to win concessions over NATO expansion, which Vladimir Putin has called the “root cause” of the war.

The Kremlin has previously suggested the Russian president may be willing to compromise on other issues if his core demands are met, essentially stripping Ukraine of its sovereignty and forcing NATO to roll back its eastward growth.

Putin will probably demand that NATO’s footprint in Europe be reduced to its 1997 level, before former Eastern bloc countries began joining the alliance.

That would mean a potential withdrawal of NATO troops from Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023. All five countries share a border with Russia.