Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that discussing any security guarantees without Russia’s participation is a “road to nowhere”.
According to him, Moscow cannot agree with the fact that it is now proposed to solve collective security issues without Russia.
“The West and above all the United States understand perfectly well that a serious discussion of security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a path to nowhere,” Lavrov told reporters.
Security guarantees for Kiev are a key issue in efforts to end the war. Their discussion became more active after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump and European counterparts in Washington. Also, according to media reports, Trump had previously discussed with the Europeans security guarantees for Ukraine “like Article 5” with the support of Europe and the United States in the event of a peace agreement, but without NATO membership.
When Trump’s special envoy Steve Whitkoff was asked on CNN if Russia would allow “Article 5 NATO guarantees,” he said:
“I said we have reached an agreement that the U.S. and other European countries can effectively offer security guarantees with language like Article 5”.
President Trump said in an interview with Fox News on 19 August that he ruled out the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed to Ukraine, but added that the United States could provide air support as part of an agreement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. He did not provide details.
As part of the security guarantees offered to Ukraine, France, Germany and Britain want to station troops in the country, the US president said.
Trump said he assumes Moscow is ready to agree to this. The Kremlin has repeatedly said it does not support the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine as part of a peace settlement.
According to Politico, the defence ministers of the “coalition of the willing” countries plan to meet as early as this week to begin agreeing on details of security guarantees for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy told journalists that the documents with the guarantees would be formalised within the next 7-10 days.