MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Moscow is not satisfied with the proposals of US president-elect Donald Trump’s team to postpone Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 20 years and to deploy a contingent of EU and UK peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already rejected the “peace proposals” of Trump’s team, according to TASS news agency. Although there have been no official initiatives from the United States yet.
In an interview with TASS, Lavrov said, “Judging by numerous leaks and Donald Trump’s own interview with Time magazine on December 12, he is talking about ‘freezing’ hostilities along the line of engagement and transferring further responsibility for confronting Russia to the Europeans. We are certainly not satisfied with the proposals made by representatives of the president-elect’s team to postpone Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 20 years and to deploy a peacekeeping contingent of ‘UK and European forces’ in Ukraine.”
Lavrov admitted that Moscow has not received any official signals from the United States on the Ukrainian settlement at the moment.
“Until January 20 – the date of inauguration – Donald Trump has the status of ‘president-elect,’ and all policy on all fronts is determined by the incumbent president and his administration,” Lavrov said.
“So far, only Biden is authorised to engage with Russia on behalf of the United States. From time to time, as we are regularly informed, this happens, but there is no talk of negotiations on Ukraine in such contacts,” the Russian foreign minister explained.
The Russian foreign minister said that Russia was open to negotiations on Ukraine, but “the agreement must be inviolable.”
Trump has repeatedly made statements about the war in Ukraine. He assured that he wanted it to end quickly. Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine within the first 24 hours of his presidency.
However, he has not set out how he might achieve that beyond getting President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to end the fighting.
Trump’s designated Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on December 18 that both sides were ready for peace talks and that Trump was in a perfect position to execute a deal to end the war.
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Reuters reported last month that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
Lavrov said Russia saw no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbours.
“A truce is a path to nowhere,” Lavrov said.
“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 neighbours,” Lavrov said.
He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way as to ensure “the impossibility of violating these agreements”.
Putin says an arrogant West led by the United States ignored Russia’s post-Soviet interests, tried to pull Ukraine into its orbit since 2014 and then used Ukraine to fight a proxy war aimed at weakening Russia.
