Finland rejects reported Russian demand to leave NATO as part of peace talks

Finland has rejected a reported Russian demand that it leave NATO as part of Ukraine peace talks, with Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen saying its membership in the alliance wasn’t up for negotiation.

“Such matters are in no way a matter for negotiation. Russia knows that. This is absolutely outrageous to even suggest such a thing,” Häkkänen told reporters on Friday, according to Finnish broadcaster Yle. Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, joined NATO in 2023 in a foreign policy U-turn prompted by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

German newspaper Bild reported that a Russian proposal made during talks in Abu Dhabi this week included Moscow keeping occupied Ukrainian territories, gaining control of new swathes of land, demilitarizing ports in Ukraine, removing NATO bases from the Baltics, and Finland leaving NATO.

Russia proposed withdrawing its nuclear weapons from Belarus and refraining from stationing intermediate-range missiles there in exchange, Bild reported.

But it remains unclear which proposals Russian President Vladimir Putin would support after discussions between intermediaries, according to the report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a new security framework for Europe for after the war raised by the Americans “can be dangerous.”

“Russia certainly cannot make decisions on behalf of all the societies that are members of NATO,” he told reporters on Friday.

Zelenskyy’s comments were not in direct response to the demands reported by Bild, but came after a meeting between Zelenskyy and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Thursday in Dublin.

“Putin’s desire to change borders in Europe is a fact. I am sure this is part of his concept of revising security guarantees in Europe. This is dangerous because, in my view, it is precisely things like this that lead to wars or escalations,” Zelenskyy said.