Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in an interview published on Sunday that a group of countries, including permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, should be the guarantors of Ukraine’s security.
It was reported last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin demands that Ukraine cede the entire eastern Donbas region, abandon ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral, and not allow the presence of Western troops in the country, according to three sources familiar with the thinking at the highest levels of the Kremlin.
Lavrov said that Putin and the United States (U.S). President Donald Trump discussed the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine, and that Putin mentioned the failed negotiations in Istanbul in 2022.
At those negotiations, Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine’s permanent neutrality in exchange for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: the United Kingdom (UK), China, France, Russia, and the U.S., as well as other countries, according to a draft agreement from 2022.
Lavrov said that a group of countries, including members of the Security Council, should guarantee Ukraine’s security. The group could also, as he said, include Germany, Turkey, and other countries.
“And the guarantors would guarantee the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, non-aligned with any military alliance, and which must be non-nuclear,” said Lavrov, according to the transcript of the interview published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lavrov also made it clear that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is unacceptable for Russia, that Russia wants protection for Russian-language speakers in Ukraine, and that there is a territorial issue that needs to be resolved with Ukraine.
