Ukraine security guarantees danger to Europe, Russia warns

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia said Thursday that the security guarantees sought by Kyiv were “guarantees of danger to the European continent,” ahead of talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders on such assurances.

The summit in Paris will be co-chaired by the leaders of France and the United Kingdom and aims to pile pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin following a series of failed attempts to reach a ceasefire in the over three-year conflict.

“The ideas of the Kyiv leader, which are essentially a carbon copy of the initiatives of European sponsors... are absolutely unacceptable,” Moscow’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

During a speech on the sidelines of an economic forum in Russia’s far east, Zakharova called Ukraine’s hoped-for guarantees “a springboard for terror, for provocations against our country.”

“They are not guarantees of Ukraine’s security, they are guarantees of danger to the European continent,” she said.

“If Ukraine wants to have security guarantee forces in Ukraine to support a peace deal, it’s up to them. Nobody else can decide about it,” North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief Mark Rutte said on a visit to Prague, Czech Republic.

Western diplomats say that the group of roughly 30 countries discussing a possible “reassurance force” for Ukraine now have concrete numbers of the troops they could commit.

European nations hope that by putting a clear plan on the table they can convince United States President Donald Trump to make good on a promise to offer American military backing.

Trump has been pushing to end the war, but the Kremlin has been stalling efforts to organize direct talks between Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky has said he is confident Kyiv’s allies will help “increase pressure on Russia to move towards a diplomatic solution” to the conflict.