Russia said on Wednesday it had to be part of any discussion on security guarantees for Ukraine and downplayed the likelihood of an imminent summit with President Volodymyr Zelensky, tempering hopes for a quick peace deal.
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Nato military chiefs, meanwhile, held a virtual summit on security guarantees for Ukraine, the latest in a flurry of global diplomacy aimed at brokering an end to the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict.
“On #Ukraine, we confirmed our support. Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace,” the chairman of the alliance’s military committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, wrote on social media after the meeting.
Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Ukraine is working on a plan with allies if Russia prolongs the war or disrupts agreements on the the leaders’ meeting.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier warned that “seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere”.
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Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.