‘Nato membership for Ukraine was unacceptable’: Russia after peace talk in Saudi Arabia – The Times of India

Russia on Tuesday demanded Nato to scrap its 2008 dedication to finally grant Ukraine membership in the US-led navy alliance. In addition they rejected the notion of Nato forces serving as peace-keepers below any ceasefire association.
Following conferences in Saudi Arabia with secretary of State Marco Rubio, US nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and Center East envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian international minister Sergei Lavrov described the discussions as productive, noting mutual attentiveness between events, .
Throughout the ongoing assembly, Russia’s international ministry clarified that merely denying Ukraine’s Nato membership was inadequate. “A refusal to just accept Kyiv into NATO will not be sufficient now,” international ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated in response to a query from Reuters.
She insisted Nato should explicitly revoke the guarantees made on the 2008 Bucharest summit.
After discussions with US officers in Riyadh, Lavrov reported that he and Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov emphasised that Nato membership for Ukraine was unacceptable to Russia. They burdened President Putin’s place that Nato’s enlargement and Ukraine’s potential inclusion poses direct threats to Russian sovereignty.
Lavrov rejected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s suggestion to deploy British and different Nato forces as peacekeepers in Ukraine, which got here in response to US President Donald Trump’s calls for European navy self-reliance.
The 2008 Bucharest declaration represented a compromise between the US, which supported admitting Ukraine and Georgia, and hesitant European powers like France and Germany.
Nato maintains its defensive nature and denies direct involvement in the battle, although particular person members have supported Ukraine with monetary and navy help. Russia continues to quote Nato’s enlargement and Ukraine’s membership aspirations as justification for the warfare.
Zakharova indicated Ukraine ought to revert to its 1990 sovereignty declaration, which established it as a impartial, non-aligned, and nuclear-free state. Ukraine gained full independence in 1991 and relinquished its nuclear arsenal in 1994 in alternate for sovereignty ensures from Russia, the US, and Britain.