(h) Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov.
Kremlin dissatisfied with proposals from Donald Trump’s team. Lavrov does not like “British and European forces” in Ukraine.
The head of Russian diplomacy, Serguei Lavrov, stated that the Russia with opposes to the possible sending of a European peace contingent for Ukraine in case of peace with Moscow.
“We are certainly not satisfied with the proposals made on behalf of the representatives of the US president-elect’s team [Donald Trump] intended for postpone Ukraine’s accession to NATO for 20 years, as well as introducing a peacekeeping contingent made up of ‘British and European forces’ in Ukraine,” Serguei Lavrov told the state agency Tass.
For several weeks there has been much speculation about possible peace negotiations between the two countries, after almost three years of conflict that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries.
Among the ideas explored by European foreign ministries and Washington is sending a European military contingent to Ukraine, along a front line that stretches for around a thousand kilometers.
This hypothesis could involve the armies of member countries of the NATO, or even holders of nuclear weapons, such as France and the United Kingdom.
“It is obviously premature to talk (…) about peacekeeping forces,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on December 16.
The American president-elect called for a “immediate ceasefire”, promising to achieve a peace agreement “in 24 hours”, without ever detailing his plan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in turn, said he wanted more weapons and security guarantees of its Western allies before any negotiations with Moscow.
Vladimir Putin, for his part, also demands Ukraine’s surrender, its renunciation of NATO membership and that Russia maintain the Ukrainian territories it annexed.
