Sybiha rejects Russian proposals to reshape European security order
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Russia's proposals to revise Europe's security architecture, arguing that the existing system works while Russia continues to violate it. He said ending Russia's aggression against Ukraine is the best plan for a safe and free Europe, and assessed the maximum possible outcome of negotiations as a fair ceasefire along the current line of contact.
Key points
- Sybiha said Europe does not need a new security order because a system already exists and Russia continually violates it
- He named an end to Russia's aggression against Ukraine as the best plan for a safe and free Europe
- Sybiha said Russia has not achieved any of its war aims
- He assessed the maximum possible negotiation outcome as a fair ceasefire along the current line of contact, not spheres of influence in Europe
- Sybiha said Volodymyr Putin seeks to redraw Europe's security order and, in his imagination, places himself at Yalta in 1945
- Russia proposed dividing Europe into spheres of influence resembling the Cold War arrangement at the Abu Dhabi talks
- The trilateral Kyiv-Moscow-Washington talks produced an agreement on a prisoner exchange
Why it matters
Sybiha's response sets out Ukraine's position on Russian demands for spheres of influence in Europe. He tied the proposals to the 1945 Yalta Conference, argued that Russia must first prevail in a world war to implement them, and assessed the maximum possible negotiation outcome as a ceasefire along the current line of contact.
What happened
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Russia's proposals to revise the European security architecture, writing about the Russian position on X. He said Europe does not need a new security order because the existing system is already in place and Russia violates it. According to Sybiha, Russia has achieved none of its invasion aims, while Ukraine liberated more territory in October than Russia captured. He also cited Russian losses of more than 1.6 million personnel killed or wounded, including 54,400 in October, and said Russia spent four years and eight months on the near-capture of Mala Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia region.
At the Abu Dhabi talks, the Russian side proposed using a Cold War-style division into spheres of influence as the basis for a future European security system. During the trilateral Kyiv-Moscow-Washington talks mediated by Washington, the parties agreed on a prisoner exchange.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Ukrainian outlets focus on Sybiha's direct response to the Russian proposals, stressing that Russia violates the existing security order. The situation is assessed through Russia's battlefield performance, its troop losses and the maximum possible negotiation result, which is a ceasefire along the current front line.
Background
At a late-November 2024 meeting with Ukraine and the United States in the UAE, according to a document published by The New York Times, Russia proposed reviewing the European security system. A key proposal was dividing Europe into spheres of influence resembling the Cold War arrangement. Russia also revived its 2021 demands to roll back NATO's 1997 borders, which would include withdrawing NATO troops from Poland and the Baltic states. According to Bild, the demands also concerned Finland, control over all of Donbas and the “demilitarization” of Odesa and Mykolaiv. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia insists on written guarantees of NATO's non-expansion to the east.