What Putin demanded of NATO over Ukraine before 27 December 2021
A look back at the Russian president's call for guarantees on NATO forces, made as troops massed around Ukraine.
What was Moscow asking of NATO as 2021 drew to a close? On 27 December 2021, the demand was already three days old. On 24 December 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin called for NATO to guarantee that it would not move its forces into Ukraine.
Putin also accused NATO and the United States of trying to send Ukraine and Russia into direct armed conflict. The accusation was part of the same demand, made publicly as the crisis around Ukraine deepened.
The military backdrop
The demand came after months of Russian military activity near Ukraine's borders. Russian forces had begun massing personnel and equipment near the border and in Crimea in March and April 2021, the largest mobilisation since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The troops were partially withdrawn by June 2021, though the infrastructure stayed in place.
A second build-up began in October 2021, with more soldiers and deployments on new fronts. By December, more than 100,000 Russian troops were massed around Ukraine on three sides, including Belarus to the north and Crimea to the south.
Russian officials, from November 2021 until 20 February 2022, repeatedly denied that Russia planned to invade Ukraine.
Against that backdrop, Putin's call for a NATO guarantee on Ukraine stood among the central public demands from Moscow at the end of 2021.
