Kremlin says security guarantees for Ukraine cannot be provided by foreign military
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MOSCOW – Security guarantees for Ukraine cannot be provided by foreign military contingents and much work needs to be done before a high- or top-level meeting between Moscow and Kyiv on settling the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Sept 5.
On Sept 4, 26 nations pledged to provide to Ukraine post-war security guarantees, which are to include an international force on land, sea and in the air.
“Can Ukraine’s security guarantees be ensured and provided by foreign, especially European and American, military contingents? Definitely not; they cannot,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA state news agency on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in the city of Vladivostok.
“This cannot serve as a security guarantee for Ukraine that would be acceptable to our country,” he added.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s attempts to find a resolution to the conflict, there seems no end in sight to the war that Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Peskov also told RIA that all needed security guarantees for Ukraine were contained in the provisions of agreements reached at peace talks in Istanbul in 2022.
Under the Istanbul framework, Ukraine would abandon Nato ambitions and adopt neutral, nuclear-free status. In exchange, it would receive security assurances from the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Mr Peskov told RIA that Moscow was satisfied with the current level of representatives at the talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“Before meeting at a high or top level, a huge amount of, shall we say, work needs to be carried out to resolve minor issues; small technical matters, which together make up the entire settlement process,” Mr Peskov said. REUTERS
