At a joint press conference alongside the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, traveling to Moscow, Sergei Lavrov reiterated today, Wednesday, August 20, the opposition of Moscow has been expressed several times since 2022 concerning the contribution of security guarantees to Ukraine by the member countries of NATO 1.
- Lavrov said Russia “will not accept that collective security guarantees to resolve the Ukrainian crisis will be adopted without the participation of Russia”.
- He added that Russia would only be favorable to guarantees “insured on an equal basis with the participation of countries such as China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France” and that it “is advisable to rely on the achievements obtained during negotiations in Istanbul in 2022”.
As we explained in these pages, following several negotiation cycles in 2022, Moscow had not excluded security guarantees for Ukraine, which were mentioned in article 5 of the declared declarations between the two parties.
- A first version of this article stipulated: “Guarantor states and Ukraine agree that in the event of assault, any armed attack on Ukraine or any military operation directed against it, each of the guarantee states, after urgent and immediate consultations between them, will provide assistance to Ukraine”.
- However, in the version of April 15, 2022 sent by the Russian party, this paragraph had been modified. Russia had added the need for unanimous decision -making decision to send aid to Ukraine in the event of assault, which gave it a right of veto on these guarantees.
- According to Lavov’s statements today, Moscow’s position has not changed.
Donald Trump and his envoy, Steve Witkoff, said at the end of the meeting between Trump and Putin of August 15 in Alaska that the Russian president had agreed to “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine.
- Lavrov’s statements do not indicate any influence of the Russian position. According to Lavrov, Russia-aggressive state-, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, should itself “provide security guarantees to Ukraine” 2.
- During an interview given Tuesday, August 19, to the Russian television channel VGTRK, Lavrov had explicitly recalled the Kremlin line vis-à-vis the regulation of the war in Ukraine while affirming that any agreement had to take into account the “interests of Russia in matters of security”.