Russia demands 'ironclad' guarantees in peace treaty with Ukraine
March 17, 20253:31 AM UTCUpdated ago Item
1 of 4 A view shows a destroyed vehicle on a street in the town of
Sudzha, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the
course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, Russia, in this
image released March 15, 2025. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via
REUTERS
[1/4]A
view shows a destroyed vehicle on a street in the town of Sudzha, which
was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of
Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, Russia, in this image
released March 15, 2025. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights - Peace deal to exclude Ukraine's NATO membership, Russia says
- Moscow open only to unarmed post-conflict observers in Ukraine
- France, Britain willing to send peacekeeping missions to Ukraine
March
17 (Reuters) - Russia will seek "ironclad" guarantees in any peace deal
on Ukraine that NATO nations will exclude Kyiv from membership and that
Ukraine will remain neutral, a Russian deputy foreign minister said in
remarks published on Monday.
U.S. President
Donald Trumpis trying to win President
Vladimir Putin's
support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week
and which Putin says needs to meet crucial conditions to be acceptable.
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Trump is expected to speak with his
Putin this week on ways to end the three-year
war in Ukraine,
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday after returning from what
he described as a "positive" meeting with Putin in Moscow.
In
a broad-ranging interview with the Russian media outlet Izvestia that
made no reference to the ceasefire proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Grushko said that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine
must meet Moscow's demands.
"We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
"Part
of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the
refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance."
Moscow is categorically against the deployment of NATO observers to Ukraine, Grushko also reiterated the Kremlin's position.
Britain and France both have said that they
were willing
to send a peacekeeping force to monitor any ceasefire in Ukraine.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country was also
open to requests.
"It
does not matter under what label NATO contingents were to be deployed
on Ukrainian territory: be it the European Union, NATO, or in a national
capacity," Grushko said.
"If
they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone
with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the
conflict."
Grushko said that a deployment of unarmed post-conflict observers can be discussed only once a peace agreement is worked out.
"We
can talk about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that would monitor
the implementation of individual aspects of this agreement, or
guarantee mechanisms," Grushko said. "In the meantime, it's just hot
air."
French President Emmanuel
Macron said
in remarks published on Sunday that the stationing of peacekeeping
troops in Ukraine is a question for Kyiv to decide and not Moscow.
Grushko
said that European allies of Kyiv should understand that only the
exclusion of Ukraine's membership in NATO and the elimination of the
possibility of deploying foreign military contingents on its territory
will work for the region.
"Then
the security of Ukraine and the entire region in a broader sense will
be ensured, since one of the root causes of the conflict will be
eliminated," Grushko said.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Michael Perry