Russia agrees on security guarantees to Kyiv but Moscow also needs them, Russian diplomat says

NEW YORK: Russia agrees that any future peace agreement on Ukraine must provide security guarantees to Kyiv but Moscow also needs credible security assurances, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, said early on Monday.

“Many leaders of #EU states emphasize that a future peace agreement should provide reliable security assurances or guarantees for Ukraine,” Ulyanov said on X.

“Russia agrees with that. But it has equal right to expect that Moscow will also get efficient security guarantees,” he added.

Ulyanov's statement confirmed Trump envoy Steve Witkoff's earlier statement that Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump that the United States and its European allies could offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the war.

Witkoff, who took part in the talks Friday at a military base in Alaska, said it “was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that” and called it “game-changing.”