Moscow has insisted it must be part of any international discussions on Ukraine’s security, as the Kremlin continues to stall on Donald Trump’s effort to arrange a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Jordan on Wednesday, dismissed European diplomacy as “aggressive escalation” and “a clumsy effort to sway Trump”. He argued that talks on security guarantees without Russia were “a road to nowhere”, and repeated Moscow’s proposal for China to act as a guarantor, alongside Russia.
Moscow as Beijing ally
The idea, first raised in Turkey in 2022, is unlikely to be welcomed in Kyiv, which regards Beijing as an ally of Moscow in the war. European leaders, meanwhile, have begun exploring possible post-war security guarantees for Ukraine following Trump’s pledge to support such measures. Russian officials have already ruled out the deployment of European forces to Ukraine, one of the options under consideration.
Lavrov avoided any reference to a potential Putin–Zelenskyy summit, underlining the Kremlin’s reluctance to commit. Trump has claimed he has started “arrangements” for a bilateral meeting, describing it as a first step before trilateral talks including the United States.
The prospect of direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy would mark a major shift, but it presents political risks for the Russian leader. Putin has repeatedly questioned Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, referring only to the “Kyiv regime” and claiming the Ukrainian president has no authority to sign a peace agreement.
Trump’s announcement puts Putin in a difficult position: rejecting the meeting could strain relations with Washington, while accepting it would grant Zelenskyy equal standing and international visibility.
