Lavrov says U.S. accepts Ukraine ‘realities’ and rejects NATO bid

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Washington’s approach to ending the war in Ukraine rests on two principles Moscow considers central: abandoning efforts to bring Kyiv into NATO and recognizing what it calls the “realities on the ground.”

Lavrov said those principles formed the basis of recent contacts between Russian and U.S. representatives, including a Moscow meeting involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and President Vladimir Putin. “I can safely tell you that the substance of what was discussed is based on the position that President Trump set out on Ukraine immediately after returning to the Oval Office,” he said.

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I can safely tell you that the substance of what was discussed is based on the position that President Trump set out on Ukraine immediately after returning to the Oval Office.

According to Lavrov, the first element of that position was that Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO should be abandoned. He said Trump had described the issue as settled. The second concerned the “realities on the ground,” which Lavrov said Moscow understood as involving not only territory but also the people living in the areas concerned and their political preferences.

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He said, first of all, that they should even forget about trying to bring Ukraine into the North Atlantic Alliance.

Lavrov dismissed speculation about what Witkoff and Kushner discussed in Moscow and Kyiv, saying the U.S. side had not publicly disclosed its next diplomatic steps. He also rejected claims that direct Russia-U.S.-Ukraine talks would necessarily resume after Russia’s parliamentary elections on September 20, saying those claims came from France rather than Washington.

He criticized European governments for failing to use opportunities to help resolve the conflict, citing the negotiations that produced the 2015 Minsk agreements and the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in 2022. Lavrov also attacked former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former French President François Hollande and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko over later statements that the Minsk process had given Ukraine time to strengthen its army. The supplied article ends while describing Lavrov’s criticism of a former British prime minister.

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Europeans had a huge number of opportunities to play a constructive role. They believe that without them there can be no negotiations, that they must be at the negotiating table.