In 2014, Russia occupied Crimea and pro-Russian forces established themselves in chunks of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of Ukraine. This led to the imposition of sanctions on Russia by the US and its European allies.
On Friday, 17 December, that it wanted to sign with the West. The central point of the draft was a western commitment that Ukraine will not join NATO and that the alliance will reduce its deployments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow said it was ready to immediately send a negotiator to start talks with the US.
On the same day, White House Press secretary Jan Psaki confirmed that the US had proposals from Russia to start talks to defuse the crisis. While there are no current plans for Ukraine to join NATO, western countries have rejected the notion of Russia holding a veto on NATO policy decisions.
The US is on record to say that there are things in the Russian draft which Moscow knows will not be acceptable to the West, and the NATO has its own demands of…
