Russia says talks on Ukraine's security without Moscow are a 'road to nowhere'

By Dmitry Antonov and Mark Trevelyan

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow's participation were a "road to nowhere", sounding a warning to the West as it scrambles to work out guarantees for Kyiv's future protection.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticised the role of European leaders who met U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help to end the three-and-a-half-year-old war.

Lavrov said Russia was in favour of "truly reliable" guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war.

At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid.

"We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work," Lavrov told a joint news conference after meeting the foreign minister of Jordan.

"I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it's a road to nowhere."

Lavrov's comments highlighted Moscow's demand for Western governments to directly engage with it on questions of security concerning Ukraine and Europe, something it says they have so far refused to do.

Moscow this week also restated its categorical rejection of "any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine".

'CLUMSY' EUROPEANS

Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelenskiy of carrying out "a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there".

Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, but the U.S. might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities.

Lavrov said the proposals discussed between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 were a "very good example" of a possible security blueprint, noting that they would also have required Ukraine to become a neutral state and give up its ambition to join NATO.

Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France.

A partially agreed draft said the guarantor states - including Russia - would respect and observe Ukraine's independence and sovereignty and refrain from the threat or use of force against it.

Ukraine wanted the guarantors, if it came under attack, to provide assistance that could include "closing airspace over Ukraine, providing necessary weapons, using armed force in order to restore and subsequently maintain the security of Ukraine as a permanently neutral state". But Russia insisted any decision must be agreed by all guarantor st ates - meaning Moscow would have a veto.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Mark Trevelyan in London; editing by Mark Heinrich)