In possible negotiations with Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will demand that NATO withdraw from the borders with Russia to the positions that the military alliance had in 1997, the Financial Times reports, citing anonymous Kremlin sources.

The newspaper adds that Putin will also demand guarantees that Ukraine will never become a member of the North Atlantic military alliance, as well as to formalize the regions of Ukraine that joined Russia in a referendum – Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Crimea – as part of Russia, despite the fact that parts of these areas are still under the control of the authorities in Kiev.

The publication states that neither in Moscow nor in Trump’s team is yet certain when the meeting between the newly elected US president and Putin could take place. Moscow is sending signals that there is a will for such a meeting. Trump said before the election that resolving the Ukrainian issue would take him 24 hours, but recently his adviser Keith Kellogg mentioned a period of one hundred days before the start of talks. The new American leader also indicated that negotiations with the Russian president could take place within six months after his inauguration on January 20.

According to the newspaper, the team of the elected American president has not yet made a decision on what approach it will take to these negotiations, and the deadlines for ending the conflict can be moved up to six months at most.

Putin wants to neutralize threats to Russia. He is very worried about what the world would look like after the war, the source said.

These demands of the Russian leader come in the context of Trump’s statements about the possibility of the United States reducing NATO funding or even completely withdrawing from the Alliance.