MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that discussing any Western security guarantees for Ukraine without Russian involvement was a "road to nowhere". Lavrov warned that "seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere. "We cannot agree that it is now suggested to solve collective security issues without the Russian Federation," he 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. US President Donald Trump, who spoke on 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 said any summit between Putin and Zelensky "must be prepared in the most meticulous way" so the meeting does not lead to a "deterioration" of the situation around the conflict. 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.
Lavrov also said the West's "confrontational position, a position to continue the war, does not find understanding in the current US administration, which... seeks to help eliminate the root causes of the conflict". Post-war security is a key concern for Ukraine after more than three years of the Russian offensive. Moscow has long said it will not tolerate Kyiv joining Nato and has been hostile to the idea of Western troops being deployed to the war-torn country.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday informed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone that Türkiye would support a process involving "all parties" for peace in Ukraine, the Turkish presidency said. Erdogan told Putin that "Türkiye has sincerely strived for a just peace since the beginning of the war, and in this context, supports approaches aimed at establishing lasting peace with the participation of all parties," his office said in a statement.
Türkiye, which enjoys friendly ties with both its Black Sea neighbours, has hosted three rounds of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia since May. Ankara has often insisted on the protection of Ukraine's territorial integrity while shying away from Western sanctions on Russia. The pair discussed "Türkiye's contribution to the peace process, as one of Nato's most important countries" and agreed to remain on close coordination, according to the presidency. They also exchanged views on feasible and sustainable security guarantees, the statement said, without further elaboration.
Nato military chiefs were set to discuss the details of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine. But even as diplomatic efforts continued on Wednesday, Russian forces claimed fresh advances on the ground and Ukrainian officials reported more deaths from Moscow's missiles. Few details have leaked on the virtual meeting of military chiefs from Nato's 32 member countries, which is due to start at 2:30 pm. But on Tuesday evening, 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.
Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday that its troops had captured the villages of Sukhetske and Pankivka in the embattled Donetsk region. They are near a section of the front where the Russian army broke through Ukrainian defences last week, between the logistics hub of Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka. Russian glide bombs hit housing in the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka overnight, trapping as many as four people under rubble, said the town's military administration chief Sergiy Gorbunov. Zelensky said these latest strikes showed "the need to put pressure on Moscow", including through sanctions. — AFP
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