Russia has publicly rejected Trump’s peace plan; what does the aggressor want?

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, among the Russian demands are:

1. Ukraine must not join NATO, remaining neutral and non-aligned.
2. International recognition of the “Russian affiliation of Crimea, Sevastopol, the ‘DPR’, ‘LPR’, Kherson region, and Zaporizhzhia,” meaning acknowledgment of all Ukrainian regions currently occupied by Russia.
3. “Demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, which likely means limiting the size of the Ukrainian military and the defense industry.
4. Lifting sanctions and the return of Russia’s frozen assets.
5. “Overcoming the consequences of the rule of the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, which emerged from the coup in February 2014,” that allegedly “destroyed everything Russian” in Ukraine – language, media, culture, traditions, and “canonical Orthodoxy.”

On at least several points, Lavrov’s speech is misaligned with the Trump administration’s proposal. Trump’s plan does not impose any restrictions on the Ukrainian military. In fact, Washington believes Kyiv should retain a strong military and defense industry. Furthermore, Trump’s plan does not limit the use of Western military personnel as guarantors of peace in Ukraine.

Earlier, Lavrov also dismissed the proposal to transfer control of the Zaporizhzhia NPP to the US and Ukraine, stating that the plant “is in safe hands.”