Kremlin is in no rush for a leaders' summit as U.S., allies talk security guarantees
NBC News
·
Source: NBC News
LONDON — The Kremlin signaled Wednesday it was in no rush to agree to a leaders’ summit with Ukraine and warned the West that talks over security guarantees for Kyiv were a “road to nowhere” without its involvement.
Moscow’s latest intervention came as the White House pressed ahead with arrangements for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while U. S. and NATO officials discussed how to ensure Ukraine’s protection as part of an eventual peace deal with Russia.
The White House was actively looking to secure a meeting location and date, a senior administration official said Tuesday, adding that the Hungarian capital, Budapest, and the Swiss city of Geneva were among the sites discussed.
But the Kremlin appeared in no hurry for the pair to sit down together.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Putin had suggested continuing negotiations in his call with President Donald Trump on Monday and that Russia was ready to consider “raising the level of the heads of delegations.”
But when it comes to meetings at the “highest level,” he said, “they must be prepared with the utmost care.”
A White House official said in a statement shared with NBC News on Wednesday that they were still working to arrange a bilateral meeting.
“President Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war,” the official said.
“As many world leaders have stated, this war would have never happened if President Trump was in office. It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly.”
Sergii Leshchenko, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told NBC News on Wednesday that talks can yield results only if Putin and Zelenskyy meet directly.
“We need a person who is able to make the final decision. Lavrov is not that person. He was not responsible for starting this war. This war was started by Putin personally,” Leshchenko said.
He added, “Zelenskyy wants to have direct negotiations with the one person who is able to make a decision and who is responsible for Russia’s side of the war. That is not Lavrov or anyone else. The only person is Putin.”
Moscow also poured cold water on Western efforts to negotiate security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.
Trump promised during a meeting with European leaders in Washington on Monday that the U. S. would provide security guarantees as part of any settlement with Russia — a red-line issue for Kyiv. He made it clear Tuesday that that would not include U.S. “boots on the ground” but said it could mean the United States’ providing air support as part of such an arrangement.
Military chiefs from NATO’s 32 member countries will meet virtually later Wednesday to discuss the way forward. U. S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the head of U.S. European Command and NATO supreme Allied commander for Europe, will attend, the chair of NATO’s military committee said. Their meeting comes after Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosted several European chiefs of defense Tuesday evening, a defense official told NBC News.
Lavrov said that Moscow was in favor of “truly reliable” security guarantees for Ukraine but that any attempt to resolve the question of Ukraine’s security without Russia was “a utopia, a road to nowhere.”
“We cannot agree with the idea that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said. “That will not work.”
Lavrov suggested security guarantees could be modeled on a draft accord Russia and Ukraine discussed in Istanbul in 2022, during the early weeks of the Kremlin’s war. Ukraine rejected the proposal, arguing it would have given Moscow veto power over any military response to come to its aid.
West of Ukraine, an object that landed overnight in a field in eastern Poland was a Russian version of the Shahed drone, Poland’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Paweł Wroński, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s neighbor has been on a high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile killed two people in the village of Przewodów in 2022.
Russian airstrikes on Ukraine continued Tuesday night, killing three civilians and injuring dozens more across multiple regions, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it had struck “pier facilities” used to supply fuel to Ukrainian forces.
Zelenskyy said on X that Russia had launched a strike “on a gas distribution station in the Odesa region.”
The ongoing attacks illustrated “the need to put pressure on Moscow,” he said, calling for “new sanctions and tariffs until diplomacy is fully effective.”
Source:
NBC News
