Russia’s security must be guaranteed by any Ukraine peace deal, Lavrov says By Reuters

MOSCOW, Reuters – Russia sees no point in a weak ceasefire to cool the war in Ukraine, but Moscow wants a legally binding agreement for a lasting peace that will ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbors, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

“A truce is a road to nowhere,” Lavrov said, adding that Moscow suspected such a weak truce would simply be used by the West to rearm Ukraine.

“We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbors,” Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow wants the legal documents to be drawn up in such a way as to ensure “the impossibility of violating these agreements”.

Reuters reported last month that President Vladimir Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Donald Trump, but ruled out any major territorial concessions and insisted that Kiev drop its ambitions to join NATO.

Putin said last week that he is ready to compromise on the Ukraine issue in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump to end the war and that he does not have the conditions to start negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities.

Putin said that the fighting was difficult, so it is “difficult and meaningless to guess what lies ahead… (but) we are moving, as you said, to our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation.” “.

Trump, who has repeatedly said he will end the war, said Sunday that Putin wanted to meet with him. Russia says there were no contacts with the incoming Trump administration.

Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (NYSE: ), will travel to Kiev and several other European capitals in early January as the next administration seeks to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine war, two sources familiar with the trip’s planning said.

“I really hope that Mr. Trump’s administration, including Mr. Kellogg, will get involved in the root causes of the conflict, we are always ready for consultations,” Lavrov said.

Putin says the arrogant West, led by the United States, has ignored Russia’s post-Soviet interests, tried to pull Ukraine into its orbit since 2014, and then used Ukraine as a proxy to wage a war aimed at weakening and ultimately destroying Russia.

After Ukraine’s Maidan revolution toppled a pro-Russian president in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and began providing military support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The West says Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine was an imperial-style land grab by Moscow that strengthened the NATO military alliance and weakened Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Sunday that Ukraine’s NATO membership is “at hand” but that Kiev will have to fight to convince allies to make it happen.

Moscow says the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO is one of the main justifications for its invasion.Russia has said that any Ukrainian membership in NATO would make any peace agreement impossible.