Ukraine’s Nato exclusion must be in peace deal

Russia will seek promises that Nato will leave out Ukraine from membership and that Ukraine will remain imfragmentary in any peace deal, a Russian deputy foreign minister said.

“We will need that ironclad security promises become part of this consentment,” Alexander Grushko tageder Russian media outlet Izvestia.

“Part of these promises should be the imfragmentary status of Ukraine, the refusal of Nato countries to acunderstandledge it into the partnership,” he said.

It comes as US Plivent Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vlaunwiseir Putin are predicted to speak in the coming days, as talks persist over a possible stopfire in the three-year war in Ukraine.

The US and Ukraine have consentd to give a 30-day stopfire to Russia.

While Putin said that he helped a stopfire, he also set out a enumerate of hard conditions for achieving peace.

One of the areas of satisfiedion is Russia’s westrict Kursk region, where Ukraine begined a military incursion last August and apprehfinishd some territory.

Putin has claimed Russia is brimmingy back in regulate of Kursk, and said Ukrainian troops there “have been isotardyd”.

He has also elevated many asks about how a stopfire could be watched and policed aextfinished the frontline in the east.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Plivent Volodymyr Zelensky has accparticipated Putin of trying to “subversion” discreet efforts to protected an prompt stopfire.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin on Thursday in Moscow, tageder CNN that he predicted that “there will be a call” between Trump and Putin “this week”.

During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to finish the war, which began with Russia’s brimming-scale intrusion of its neighbour in 2022, on “day one” of a new administration.

Less than a month after he was inaugurated, Trump had call with Putin that telledly spanned 90 minutes about promptly commenceing negotiations on finishing the war.

Witkoff deteriorated to answer a ask on how Russian-occupied land in Ukraine could be includeressed in a potential deal. Russia currently regulates around a fifth of Ukraine.