Vladimir Putin demands Britain abandon nuclear protection for Europe in Ukraine peace ultimatum

Vladimir Putin has demanded that Britain abandon nuclear protection for Europe as part of Moscow's sweeping preconditions for Ukraine peace negotiations, a leaked Russian policy document has revealed.

The UK is the sole European country that commits its nuclear arsenal to the broader defence of the alliance.

Nato allies across the continent can rely on a submarine-based nuclear deterrent from the UK.

Beyond targeting Britain's nuclear umbrella, the Kremlin's list of requirements insists that Nato pull its forces back from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, expel Finland from the alliance, and halt all Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Russia would also retain control of occupied Ukrainian territory under the terms, while potentially permitting Kyiv to join the EU, provided Ukraine is excluded from the bloc's common defence arrangements.

The document, first reported by Germany's Bild newspaper and dated November 10, echoes the maximalist demands Putin issued in late 2021, shortly before launching his full-scale invasion.

European leaders quickly dismissed Moscow's demands.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham, speaking to reporters on Thursday after a meeting with counterparts in Dublin, declared: "Well, no, that's not up for negotiation. It's for Europe to decide its own arrangements, Europe and Europe alone."

Finland, which abandoned its longstanding military neutrality specifically because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, flatly refused to entertain any discussion of its Nato membership.

Defence minister Antti Häkkänen responded: "Such matters are in no way a matter for negotiation. Russia knows that. This is absolutely outrageous to even suggest such a thing."

Estonia's foreign minister Margus Tsahkna was equally emphatic, writing online: "Europe's security is decided by Europeans.

Neither Estonia nor Europe will ever discuss Finland's Nato membership, or any other sovereign security decision, with Putin."

In a separate development, Donald Trump's peace envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have proposed a compromise in which Ukraine would gain Nato membership in return for surrendering the eastern Donbas regions to Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was open to examining the proposal under certain conditions.

He told reporters: "If the American side confirms precisely this to us, together with other Nato partners, then I will ask our Ukrainian society what it thinks: do we accept it or no?"

The Ukrainian leader stressed that he could not take such a decision unilaterally, saying he would engage in open dialogue with the public about where matters stood and how partners envisaged the path ahead.

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Kyiv has long sought Nato's Article 5 mutual defence guarantee as protection against future Russian aggression, though Washington and Berlin have previously resisted serious talks on Ukrainian accession over fears of direct confrontation with Moscow.

Russia presently controls roughly 80 per cent of Ukraine's eastern Donbas regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, and Putin has demanded the handover of the remaining territory his forces have been unable to seize on the battlefield.

Those areas encompass Ukraine's so-called fortress belt, the primary defensive line shielding against large-scale advances towards Kyiv.

Moscow has consistently maintained that Ukrainian membership of Nato is unacceptable, placing the Kushner-Witkoff proposal in direct tension with the Kremlin's stated position.

Yesterday, EU leaders agreed that Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland, alongside representatives of the EU and Nato, would speak for Europe in any forthcoming peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

Putin is understood to have accepted European participation in the talks, which American mediators regard as essential to resolving the conflict.