Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refused to comment on the U.S.-Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi last week, in remarks to reporters in Moscow on Jan. 29. “The President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov had already said that, unlike the Ukrainians and the Americans, we do not comment on talks if they must take place in a confidential and private setting,” he said, according to the Foreign Ministry transcript. “Those trying to make all sorts of statements on what is being discussed, and who promised what and to whom, are treating the negotiating practices in a somewhat negligent manner and are demonstrating a certain level of indecency.”
Lavrov noted that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the U.S. Senate this week that security guarantees for Ukraine were a done deal. “We do not know what kind of guarantees they agreed upon, but everything points to the fact that they are talking about offering guarantees to the very Ukrainian regime that is pursuing a Russia-hating, neo-Nazi policy,” he said. “If their aim consists of preserving the regime within a certain part of what used to be Ukraine’s territory and persisting with their efforts to reshape it as an outpost for threatening the Russian Federation, you can probably guess that these security guarantees would likely fail to bring about lasting peace.”
Lavrov noted that Russia did agree on security guarantees back in April 2022 in Istanbul. “Moreover, it was Ukraine which submitted the draft setting forth these guarantees. We supported this proposal,” he said. “It was only later, as you know, that then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that they should not sign the corresponding agreement, even if it was already initialed. Those security guarantees provided for collective and indivisible security, including for the Russian Federation and the entire region surrounding Ukraine.
