Russia's security must be guaranteed by any Ukraine peace deal, Lavrov says

Moscow seeks legally binding peace deal for lasting security in Ukraine, rejecting weak truce as Western ploy.

Russia sees no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war in Ukraine but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbours, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday (December 26, 2024).

"A truce is a path to nowhere," Mr. Lavrov said, adding that Moscow suspected such a weak truce would be simply used by the West to re-arm Ukraine.

"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 neighbors," Mr. Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way to ensure "the impossibility of violating these agreements."

Reuters reported last month that President Vladimir Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Donald Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Mr. Putin said last week that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Mr. Putin said the fighting was complex, so it was "difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead... (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation."