Russia says talks on Ukraine’s security without Moscow are a ‘road to nowhere’

MOSCOW — Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow’s participation were a “road to nowhere,” sounding a warning to the West as it scrambles to work out guarantees for Kyiv’s future protection. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticised the role of European leaders who met U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help end the three-and-a-half-year-old war.

“We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Lavrov told a joint press conference after meeting Jordan’s foreign minister. U.S. and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, U.S. officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Lavrov said such discussions without Russia were pointless.

“I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it’s a road to nowhere.” NATO military leaders holding a video conference on Wednesday had a “great, candid discussion” on the results of recent talks on Ukraine, the chair of the alliance’s military committee said.

A Western official told Reuters that a small group of military leaders continued discussions in Washington on security guarantees shortly after the bigger virtual meeting. After Polish officials said that an object that crashed in a cornfield in eastern Poland overnight was likely a Russian drone, Poland accused Russia of provoking NATO countries just as efforts to find an end to the war were intensifying.

“Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are under way,” Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Lavrov’s comments highlighted Moscow’s demand for Western governments to directly engage with it on questions of security concerning Ukraine and Europe, something it says they have so far refused to do.

Moscow this week also restated its rejection of “any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine.”