MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it had to be part of any discussion on security guarantees for Ukraine and downplayed the likelihood of an early summit between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
NATO military chiefs were meanwhile scheduled to hold a virtual summit on security guarantees for Ukraine, the latest in a flurry of global diplomacy to end the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that “seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere”.
On Tuesday, top US officer Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with European military chiefs on the “best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal,” a US defence official said as cited by AFP.
Diplomatic flurry
US President Donald Trump brought Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Russia’s foreign minister downplayed the meeting between Trump and European leaders at the White House, describing it as a “clumsy” attempt to change the US president’s position on Ukraine.
Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine, earlier said European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement.
He ruled out sending US troops but suggested the country might provide air support.
Russia has long said it will never tolerate the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine.
While Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia has not confirmed this.
Lavrov also cast doubt on an imminent meeting between Putin and Zelensky, saying that any summit between Putin and Zelensky “must be prepared in the most meticulous way” so it does not lead to a “deterioration” of the situation surrounding the conflict.
