OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:22 AM – Sunday, August 24, 2025
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed that Russia is willing to allow a coalition of United Nations Security Council members to guarantee Ukraine’s security as part of a peace agreement, while blaming Western European nations for obstructing a potential peace agreement.
Lavrov made Moscow’s demands for ending the war in Ukraine clear during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
In the interview, Lavrov stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the issue of Ukrainian security guarantees during their recent meeting in Alaska. Lavrov pointed to Russia’s previous proposals during the 2022 failed peace negotiations in Istanbul.
During the 2022 Istanbul discussions, Russia proposed that Ukraine remain a neutral, non-nuclear state in exchange for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States.
“And the guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear,” Lavrov stated, without providing further details as to how the proposed security guarantees would be implemented.
Moscow has also demanded that Ukraine cede the eastern Donbas region, which comprises the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Lavrov went on to blame Ukraine’s European allies for the continuation of the war, while praising President Trump’s peace efforts.
“We want peace in Ukraine. He wants, President Trump wants, peace in Ukraine,” Lavrov stated. “The reaction to Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives and what they were doing after Washington indicated that they don’t want peace.”
“When President Trump brought … those issues to the meeting in Washington,” he continued. “It was very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything.”
On a bilateral summit between Putin and Zelensky pushed by President Trump, Lavrov stated: “Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Thursday that Russia is attempting to “wriggle out” of a bilateral meeting while continuing to inflict “massive attacks” against Ukraine.
Zelensky added that he is “ready” for a meeting with Putin while urging the United States to impose a “strong reaction” for Russia’s refusal to immediately come to the table, including additional sanctions.
Kyiv and Russia still appear to be miles apart in peace negotiations, as Ukraine refuses to negotiate away territory seized by Russia to end the war.
Kyiv is also demanding the deployment of European forces to Ukraine as part of its security guarantees, which conflicts with Russia’s insistence on Ukrainian neutrality.
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