Donald Trump may be in talks with Russia to end the Russia-Ukraine war, but in the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid down a new condition. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, we will never accept a ceasefire that says NATO forces will be deployed in Ukraine. We will not accept the peacekeeping forces of NATO countries under any peace agreement in Ukraine. He made this statement after a high-level meeting with the US in Saudi Arabia.
The Russian Foreign Minister said, the presence of armed forces under any other flag will not change anything. This is completely unacceptable. Russia and the US said they have agreed to appoint teams to start talks to end the war. After the meeting, the US Secretary of State said, today is the first step in a long and difficult journey, but it is an important step.
Why Zelensky was surprised
Ukraine was not invited to the talks, which its President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a "surprise". The meeting in Riyadh was the first time that Russian and US delegations met face-to-face since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting in Saudi Arabia was attended by US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, as well as Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev.
What did Lavrov say
After the meeting on the ceasefire, Lavrov said that the US and Russia would appoint ambassadors to each other's countries as soon as possible and create "conditions for restoring full cooperation". It was a very useful conversation. We listened to each other and understood. He described any expansion of the NATO defense alliance - and Ukraine's inclusion in it - as a "direct threat" to Russia.
America's point
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State said he was "confident" that Russia was "ready to engage in a serious process to end the conflict." He said, "All parties will have to make some concessions. We will not decide in advance what they will be." European leaders held a quick meeting in Paris on Monday to discuss their response to a possible reconciliation between Russia and the US under President Biden - but they could not agree on a unified position.
Condition of European countries
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said any Ukraine agreement would require "American support" to prevent Russia from attacking its neighbor again and said he would consider deploying British troops in Ukraine. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, a key NATO ally, said it was “completely premature” to currently discuss sending troops to Ukraine. In Riyadh, Blinken said the EU “will have to be involved in the talks at some point because they have also imposed sanctions.”
