Zelenskyy for the first time proposed security guarantees for Russia upon peace settlement

The President of Ukraine for the first time acknowledged the possibility of providing security guarantees not only to Ukraine but also to Russia as part of a future peace settlement. Western countries may ultimately discuss Moscow's demands for such guarantees, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv. But first and foremost, this must be done for Ukraine, he emphasized, writes the Moscow Times.

Zelenskyy's statement came amidst preparations for the resumption of negotiations in Abu Dhabi between Russian and Ukrainian delegations. The Financial Times calls it a significant shift in Kyiv's position: until now, it and its Western allies had rejected Russia's demands to protect it from NATO. Fulfilling such demands would lead to a radical restructuring of the security architecture in Europe, which considers them an attempt to restore Moscow's sphere of influence and undermine the sovereignty of neighboring countries.

“First we need to resolve the issue of this war and only then look for answers to the questions that Russia raises, based on its views and expectations regarding security,” Zelenskyy stated. He emphasized that Europe must necessarily participate in discussions about a post-war settlement: “We can discuss conceptual issues with the Russians with the mediation of the United States. But if we move to the format of security guarantees and it is decided that European participation will be needed for them, then Europe must be part of these discussions.”

This was also conveyed to Vladimir Putin by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who spoke with the Kremlin leader the day before, along with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. As Støre explained, the main goal of the conversation was to convey the European position to Putin:

We focused on the future — on what must happen so that this war does not continue indefinitely for months, bringing with it human casualties… I don't think [Putin] will change his mind [about the principles of ending the war], but our position was presented to him very clearly. I am concerned that some of these messages do not reach him when Americans speak with him.

Moscow states its readiness to involve Europeans in negotiations on Ukraine — this was stated, in particular, by Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. But in reality, this conceals the Kremlin's old intention to achieve a rollback of NATO to its 1997 borders or, at a minimum, the withdrawal of troops and weapons from alliance countries bordering Russia — Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, and Estonia, The Telegraph recently reported, citing sources in Western diplomatic agencies. According to them, Putin sees the negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to force NATO to abandon its eastward expansion and even reverse this process.

He made the same demands before the invasion. Western countries are clearly not ready to make concessions to the Russian side on this issue.

Regarding the meeting in Abu Dhabi in early November, these will be technical negotiations on possible de-escalation measures, including an energy and maritime truce, as well as discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. According to the president, who spoke with Støre and Stubb before and after their conversation with Putin, the leaders of Norway and Finland had the impression that Moscow was "serious" about the planned negotiations.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, called Støre and Stubb's conversation with Putin a simple "desire of Europeans to squeeze into the negotiation process." According to him, Russia does not see "a change in Europe's approach, which adopts document after document, makes speech after speech, statement after statement, condemning Russia and demanding an end to the aggression, completely ignoring how all this began."

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