The Daily Populous Thursday August 21st, 2025 night edition
Authored by politico.eu and submitted by ChiefFun

“Moscow won’t agree with collective security guarantees negotiated without Russia … Russia will accept if the security guarantees to Ukraine are provided on equal basis with the participation of countries like China, the United States, the United Kingdom and France,” Lavrov said in a press conference, after meeting the Jordanian foreign minister.

Beijing and Moscow having any say in how security guarantees for Ukraine would work is a nonstarter for Western allies, even as they attempt to cobble together a plan to protect Ukraine after any ceasefire or peace agreement comes into force.

In a further example of the Kremlin’s recalcitrance on taking steps to end its full-scale invasion that began in February 2022, a mooted meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains a distant prospect, according to comments Lavrov made earlier this week.

On Wednesday, Lavrov returned to a concept proposed during the Istanbul peace talks in April 2022 that involved a NATO-like coalition of guarantor nations providing security guarantees to Ukraine. That idea flopped on the Western side because Moscow demanded a unanimous clause that had to be green-lighted by all countries, including Russia, before the guarantees could be triggered.

“I am confident that in the West — first and foremost in the United States — they perfectly understand that discussing the issue of security without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere,” Lavrov said at a press conference.

Putin’s top diplomat also hit out at the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, an ardent Russia hawk, whose statements he said are “a degradation of the foreign policy methods.”

Trump, who touted recent meetings with Putin and then Zelenskyy and European leaders as a success, told Zelenskyy and European leaders during their Monday meeting that Ukraine will have “Article 5-like” NATO protections, but omitted any specifics — while pledging later that no American boots will be on the ground in Ukraine.

European leaders ultimately don’t believe Putin is sincere about a peace deal — and Lavrov’s statements provide ballast to that theory.

Big_Introduction1952 on August 20th, 2025 at 17:15 UTC »

Russia is creating unrealistic demands, as usual. This forces Ukraine to decline and makes it look like they don’t want peace. The reality is that Russia has one goal, and that is to take all of Ukraine. Anything that Russia says is a lie. They are stalling, and nothing good will come of it.

TheAlbinoNinja on August 20th, 2025 at 17:10 UTC »

Russia would also like a veto over Ukraine's foreign policy, domestic policy, leadership, and Eurovision entry.

ChiefFun on August 20th, 2025 at 17:05 UTC »

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has insisted that any acceptable security guarantees for Ukraine must include Russia (and allies like China), granting Moscow effective veto power—effectively sidelining Western-led “Article 5-like” arrangements. Ukraine outright rejects this demand, warning it would leave them defenseless, and Western allies are pushing back hard.

Ridiculous!