What did Putin demand of NATO over Ukraine?

What was Moscow asking for as 2021 drew to a close? On 27 December 2021, the demand made three days earlier, on 24 December, still framed the 2021 Russo-Ukrainian crisis: Russian president Vladimir Putin called for a guarantee that NATO would not move its forces into Ukraine.

Putin also accused NATO and the U.S. of trying to send Ukraine and Russia into direct armed conflict. That placed responsibility for the tension on the alliance and Washington, not on Moscow.

The military backdrop

The demand came against a large Russian military presence near Ukraine. A first build-up of troops and equipment near the border and in Crimea began in March and April 2021, the largest mobilisation since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Troops were partially withdrawn by June, though the infrastructure stayed in place.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 from Belarus in the north and Crimea in the south.

Two messages at once

Russian officials repeatedly denied from November 2021 that Russia planned to invade Ukraine. Putin's demand for guarantees on NATO forces therefore ran alongside those denials and alongside the troop deployments. Later, on 20 February 2022, the denials were still being repeated, days before the invasion of 2022.