The Kremlin claimed it’s open to talks with Washington on the war in Ukraine only if the “root causes” are addressed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday during a Security Council meeting.
Speaking to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov via video at the meeting, Putin said he is “open to dialogue” with US President Donald Trump’s new administration but only if Russian interests are respected, and that the “root causes” of the war are addressed by Trump.
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“We are also open to dialogue with the new US Administration on the Ukrainian conflict. The most important thing here is to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, which we have spoken about many times, this is the most important thing,” Putin said, according to a transcript of the meeting published by the Kremlin.
Putin then gave a brief outline of the Kremlin’s preconditions, hinting at his desire for Kyiv’s disarmament.
“As for the settlement of the situation itself, I would like to emphasize again: Its goal should not be a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region,” Putin said.
During the conversation, Putin also said Ukraine’s membership in the NATO defensive alliance would be unacceptable, hinting that he would also reject a delay to Kyiv’s aspirations to join as a potential compromise, a notion proposed by some in the US as a step towards ending the war and deterring another Russian invasion.
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What are Putin’s so-called “root causes?”
Neither Putin nor Lavrov elaborated on what they meant by “root causes” during the Monday meeting, but similar wording was used by Lavrov in late December while referring to Moscow’s ultimate goals at the time of the 2022 invasion, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted in its Monday update.
In a Dec. 26 interview, Lavrov said the “root causes of the Ukrainian crisis” include NATO’s eastward expansion and what he called the illegitimacy of the Kyiv administration that led to the “oppression” of Russian culture in Ukraine.
“And they must address the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis. The two main ones are, firstly, the violation of all obligations not to advance NATO to the east and the aggressive ‘absorption’ by NATO of the entire geopolitical space up to our borders.”
“... The second root cause is the absolutely racist actions of the Kiev [sic] regime after the coup d’etat. Then, the extermination of everything Russian was officially permitted and then legally secured: language, mass media, culture, even the use of the Russian language in everyday life,” Lavrov said, referring to the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014 as a coup d’etat.
Ukraine has since had two subsequent democratic presidential elections monitored by international observers.
Kyiv Post published multiple reports on the language issue in Ukraine in December 2023, with many inhabitants of major Ukrainian cities, especially in eastern and central Ukraine, continuing to use Russian on a daily basis with no repercussions.
NATO expansion?
Besides the fact that NATO members choose to join the alliance and are not “absorbed” by it, ISW noted that “alleged threats from NATO expansion did not actually drive Putin to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” citing Putin’s comment during a press conference on Dec. 26.
Speaking to reporters, Putin acknowledged that former US President Joe Biden proposed a delay of Ukraine’s NATO membership in 2021 by 10 to 15 years, a notion that Putin rejected then and now.
“I know that the current President Biden told me about this – it’s no secret – back in 2021. He suggested exactly this to me – to postpone Ukraine’s admission to NATO for 10-15 years, because it is not ready now.
“To which I reasonably replied: ‘Well, yes, it is not ready today, but you will prepare it and accept it.’ In terms of historical distances and timeframes, this is a moment,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.
In December 2021, three months before the full-scale invasion, Putin issued an ultimatum to Washington demanding a permanent ban on Ukraine’s NATO entry and withdrawal of NATO troops from members that were once under the Soviet sphere of influence – the latter demand was called unrealistic by analysts who said that condition could not be met regardless of Ukraine’s status.
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