Moscow has raised many of these same demands over the last two decades, some making their way into formal negotiations with the US and Europe.

Most recently, Moscow discussed them with the Biden administration in a series of meetings in late 2021 and early 2022 as tens of thousands of Russian troops sat on Ukraine's border, awaiting the order to invade.

They included demands that would constrain US and NATO military operations from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.

While rejecting some of the terms, the Biden administration sought to forestall the invasion by engaging with Russia on several of them, according to US government documents reviewed by Reuters and multiple former US officials.

The effort failed and Russia attacked on February 24, 2022.

US and Russian officials in recent weeks have said that a draft agreement discussed by Washington, Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul in 2022 could be a starting point for peace talks. The agreement never went through.

 those talks, Russia demanded that Ukraine give up its NATO ambitions and accept a permanent nuclear-free status. It also demanded a veto over actions by countries that wanted to assist Ukraine in the event of war.

The Trump administration has not explained how it is approaching its negotiations with Moscow. The two sides are engaged in two separate conversations: one on resetting US-Russia relations and the other on a Ukraine peace agreement.

The administration appears to be divided on how to proceed.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is helping lead the discussion with Moscow, last month on CNN described the Istanbul talks as "cogent and substantive negotiations" and said that they could be "a guidepost to get a peace deal done."

But Trump's top Ukraine and Russia envoy, retired General Keith Kellogg, told a Council on Foreign Relations audience last week that he did not see the Istanbul agreement as a starting point.

"I think we have to develop something entirely new," he said.

Old Demands

Experts say Russia's demands likely are not only intended to shape an eventual agreement with Ukraine, but also to be the basis of accords with its Western supporters.

Russia has made similar demands of the US over the last two decades - demands that would limit the West's ability to build a stronger military presence in Europe and potentially allow Putin to expand his influence in the continent.

"There's no sign that the Russians are willing to make any concessions," said Angela Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was the top US intelligence analyst for Russia and Eurasia. "The demands haven't changed at all. I think they are not really interested in peace or a meaningful ceasefire."

In their effort to forestall what US intelligence officials concluded was an imminent Russian invasion, senior Biden administration officials engaged with Russian counterparts on three of the Kremlin's demands, according to the US government documents reviewed by Reuters.

They were a ban on military exercises by US and other NATO forces on the territories of new alliance members and a ban on US intermediate-range missile deployments in Europe or elsewhere within range of Russian territory, according to the documents.

The Russians also sought to bar military exercises by the US or NATO from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus and Central Asia, the documents showed.

"These are the same Russian demands that have been made since 1945," said Kori Schake, a former Pentagon official who directs foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. "With the behavior of the Trump administration in recent weeks, Europeans aren't just scared we're abandoning them, they're afraid we've joined the enemy."