Russia won’t accept Nato troops in Ukraine, Lavrov says after talks with US

Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated his nation will not settle for peacekeeping forces from Nato nations in Ukraine underneath any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.

“Any look by armed forces underneath another flag doesn’t change something. It’s after all fully unacceptable,” he stated.

Russia and the US stated that they had agreed to nominate groups to start out negotiating the top of the battle.

“At this time is step one of a protracted and tough journey, however an vital one”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated following the assembly.

Ukraine was not invited to the talks, which its president Volodymyr Zelensky stated was a “shock”.

However US President Donald Trump stated he was “disillusioned” by Ukraine’s response.

Talking to reporters at Mar-A-Lago, he was requested by the BBC what his message was to Ukrainians who may really feel betrayed.

“I hear that they are upset about not having a seat, nicely, they’ve had a seat for 3 years and a very long time earlier than that. This might have been settled very simply,” he stated.

After the assembly between US and Russian officers in Saudi Arabia, Trump stated he was “far more assured”.

“They have been superb. Russia needs to do one thing. They need to cease the savage barbarianism.”

“I feel I’ve the ability to finish this battle,” he stated.

Requested concerning the prospect of European nations sending troops to Ukraine, he stated: “In the event that they need to try this, that is nice I am all for it.”

The assembly in Riyadh was the primary time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that Russian and American delegations are recognized to have met face-to-face.

On the talks have been US Center East envoy Steve Witkoff and US Nationwide Safety Advisor Mike Waltz, in addition to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov and the top of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev.

Afterwards, Lavrov stated the US and Russia would appoint ambassadors to one another’s nations as quickly as attainable and create situations to “restore co-operation in full”.

“It was a really helpful dialog. We listened to one another, and we heard one another,” he stated.

He reiterated Russia’s earlier place that any enlargement of the Nato defence alliance – and Ukraine becoming a member of it – can be a “direct menace” to Russia.

Rubio in the meantime stated he was “satisfied” Russia was “prepared to start to interact in a severe course of” to finish the battle.

“There must be concessions made by all sides. We’re not going to predetermine what these are.”

European leaders held a hastily-arranged assembly in Paris on Monday to debate their response to the obvious rapprochement between Russia and the US underneath President Trump – however didn’t agree a unified place.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated any Ukraine deal would require a “US backstop” to discourage Russia from attacking its neighbour once more and stated he would think about deploying UK troops to Ukraine.

However Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a key Nato ally, stated for his half, discussing sending troops to Ukraine at current was “fully untimely”.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk additionally stated he doesn’t intend to ship troops, and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni – the one European chief to attend Trump’s inauguration – expressed doubts.

She instructed the assembly in Paris that deploying European troops can be “probably the most advanced and the least efficient” method of securing peace in Ukraine.

In Riyadh, Rubio stated the European Union was going to “need to be on the desk sooner or later as a result of they’ve sanctions as nicely which were imposed”.

On the absence of Ukraine on the assembly, he insisted “nobody is being side-lined”.

“Everybody concerned in that battle must be OK with it, it must be acceptable to them,” he added.

Ukrainian chief Volodymyr Zelensky seemed visibly drained and upset when he gave his response to the assembly throughout a information convention in Turkey.

“We would like every part to be honest and in order that no person decides something behind our again,” he stated.

“You can’t make choices with out Ukraine on how one can finish the battle in Ukraine.”

He might be alarmed by all the grins on each American and Russian faces in Riyadh, however he’ll know that he can do little to vary no matter they agree on over his head.

The Ukrainian president may also know that his nation’s probabilities of resisting – not to mention defeating – Russian troops with out American assist are very slim.