Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The Foreign Minister says that, security guarantees should be for “all sides”.
The ongoing debate over what a peace in Ukraine could look like has shown that Moscow and the Kremlin are still miles apart on several issues.
Russia demands that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the parts of Donbas not occupied by Russia — a demand Ukraine outright denies.
Furthermore, Russia demands that Ukraine never join NATO — a demand that would effectively allow Russia to make political decisions on Ukraine’s behalf.
On the other side of the table, Ukraine has opened up to the possibility of holding elections (another demand from the Kremlin), but Kyiv has emphasized the need for Western security guarantees for such elections to be possible.
Kremlin backs security guarantees – for all
Security guarantees have been a continued demand from Ukraine when discussing possible terms of peace with Russia, as Kyiv suspects that Russia would use a ceasefire to regroup, rearm, and then restart its advance into Ukrainian territory at some point.
But now, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has actually supported the idea of security guarantees — if they would apply to both sides of the war.
Sky News reports that Lavrov, when speaking to ambassadors Thursday morning, praised U.S. President Donald Trump for making a genuine attempt to settle the conflict.
Lavrov then added that there should indeed be security guarantees, but only if they apply to both parties to the conflict.
“We have conveyed to our American colleagues additional proposals concerning collective security guarantees,” Lavrov said according to Reuters before adding:
“We understand that when discussing security guarantees, we cannot limit ourselves to Ukraine alone.”
He reiterated the Russian stand that a NATO membership for Ukraine would be unacceptable to the Kremlin.
The threat from NATO
The Kremlin has long framed NATO as a threat to Russian sovereignty, slamming the bloc’s eastern expansion and even accusing Ukraine and NATO of planning an attack on Russia.
The Kremlin has not released any evidence of such a plan, and both Ukraine and NATO have strongly denied the existence of any such plans.
Sources: Deutsche Welle, Sky News, RIA Novosti, Reuters
