Russia’s foreign minister has warned attempts to resolve security issues related to Ukraine without Moscow’s participation were a “road to nowhere,” as European leaders scramble to work out guarantees for Kyiv’s future protection.
Sergei Lavrov criticised leaders who met US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, which could help bring an end to the conflict in the war-torn country.
He said Russia was in favour of “truly reliable” guarantees for Ukraine and put forward the idea that these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed in the early weeks of the war in 2022.
At the time, Kyiv rejected the plans as Moscow would have been able to effectively veto any military response coming to Ukraine’s aid.
"We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work," Lavrov told a joint news conference after meeting the foreign minister of Jordan.
"I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it's a road to nowhere."
Moscow has demanded Western governments directly engage with it when it comes to security concerning Ukraine and Europe, but it claims they have so far refused to do so.
Once again this week, Moscow also rejected "any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine".
Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelensky of carrying out "a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there".
Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end its war with Russia.
The US President added that he had ruled out putting US troops on the ground in Ukraine, but the US might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities.
Lavrov said the plans discussed between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 were a "very good example" of a possible security blueprint, noting that they would also have required Ukraine to become a neutral state and give up its ambition to join NATO.
Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France.
A partially agreed draft said the guarantor states - including Russia - would respect and observe Ukraine's independence and sovereignty and refrain from the threat or use of force against it.
Ukraine wanted the guarantors, if it came under attack, to provide assistance that could include "closing airspace over Ukraine, providing necessary weapons, using armed force in order to restore and subsequently maintain the security of Ukraine as a permanently neutral state".
But Russia insisted any decision must be agreed by all guarantor states - meaning Moscow would have a veto.
