The exclusion of NATO in Ukraine should be in a peace deal
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that Russia will seek guarantees that NATO will exclude Ukraine from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral in any peace deal.
“We will ask that the guarantees of iron security from this agreement become part of this agreement,” Alexander Grushko told Russian media.
“Part of these guarantees should be the neutral situation of Ukraine, and the NATO countries refused to accept it in the coalition,” he said.
It comes as US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin He is expected to speak in the coming daysAs the talks continue to a three -year ceasefire in Ukraine.
The United States and Ukraine agreed to a 30 -day ceasefire proposal for Russia.
While Putin said he supported the ceasefire, he also set a list of difficult conditions for peace.
One of the areas of disagreement is the western Kursk region in Russia, where Ukraine launched a military penetration last August and seized some lands.
Putin claimed that Russia has fully returned in the control of Corsak, and said that the Ukrainian forces there were “isolated.”
It has also raised many questions about how to monitor the ceasefire on the front lines in the east.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodimir Zelinski Putin accused Attempt to “sabotate” diplomatic efforts To secure an immediate ceasefire.
The American envoy Steve Whitchov, who met Putin on Thursday in Moscow, told CNN that he is expected to be an invitation “between Trump and Putin” this week.
During his election campaign, Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war, which started with Russia’s widespread invasion of its neighbor in 2022, on the “first day” of a new administration.
Less than a month after its opening, Trump was calling Putin According to 90 minutes reported on the start of negotiations immediately on ending the war.
Witkoff refused to answer a question about how Russian -occupied lands in Ukraine in a possible deal. Russia is currently controlling about five Ukraine.
