Moscow draws hard line over security guarantees for Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any Western security guarantees for Ukraine in an eventual peace deal could only be enacted with Moscow’s cooperation—essentially rendering them useless against another Russian invasion. 

Lavrov said on Wednesday that discussing any Western security guarantees for Ukraine without Russian involvement was a “road to nowhere”. NATO military chiefs were set Wednesday to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine amid efforts to broker an end to Russia’s offensive.

“We cannot agree that it is now suggested to solve collective security issues without the Russian Federation,” the Foreign Minister told reporters. President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and the ensuing conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

President Donald Trump, who spoke Monday with his Russian counterpart, said Putin had agreed to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine.

Lavrov said in their phone call Putin had only told Trump he would “think about raising the level of” talks on Ukraine. Lavrov also accused European leaders — some of whom also visited the White House on Monday — of making “clumsy attempts” to change the US president’s position on Ukraine.

“We have only seen aggressive escalation of the situation and rather clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president,” he said, referring to Monday’s meeting. “We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there,” Lavrov added.

It is becoming clear that the line that Russia and Ukraine have drawn respectively, from which they will not negotiate any further, might not converge at all. This is to say that any agreement that contains acceptable terms to Ukraine is unacceptable for Russia, and vice versa.