Russia says it wants to be part of Ukraine security talks, warning any bid to make decisions by “clumsy” European nations without Moscow is a “road to nowhere”.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov followed up comments dismissing Europe’s bid to arrange security guarantees for Ukraine as utopian and a “road to nowhere” with fresh remarks on Thursday that may amount to a fresh bid to slow or derail peace talks by introducing new demands.
While President Trump had revealed on Monday that “President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine”, it was never made clear what it was Putin had signalled his consent to and now Russia is finessing its conditions in public. Lavrov said today that any foreign military deployment to Ukraine — the very core of what European nations have in mind for Ukrainian security guarantees — would be “absolutely unacceptable for Russia”.
The Russian career diplomat who has been in the foreign ministry since the days of the Soviet Union accused European states of wishing to “exacerbate” tensions by creating an “anti-Russian” alliance “based on aggressive intentions towards our country”. Security guarantee talk amid the Coalition of the Willing is “further attempts to inflict a strategic defeat on us” and a bid to “undermine” Putin-Trump peace talks, he claimed.
These remarks follow others, as previously reported, made by Lavrov on Wednesday when he declared that any attempts to cater for Ukraine’s future safety without Russia at the table are doomed to failure. He said claimed the West “understand perfectly well” that talking security without Russia at the table is “a road to nowhere”.
Lavrov said: “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… 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.”
Meanwhile, European nations are champing at the bit to get troops in Ukraine, although all so far have demurred from actually coming into contact with Russian troops. As reported on Wednesday, ten European states of 31 members of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ say they are ready to deploy, although most are unnamed and what exactly they would contribute is still under discussion.
The United Kingdom is the keenest of all to get involved, but even London insists it will only support Ukraine far behind the front lines, saying its troops could be committed to reach-echelon roles like logistics and training.
The area most likely to be taken up by Western partners, from European players like the United Kingdom, France, and Poland to the United States itself is air patrols to enforce a ceasefire or peace deal long-term. President Trump said the air domain would be where American power was applied given the USAF has such overwhelmingly superior equipment.
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