![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/skynews-russia-ukraine_6996609.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt all sounded so promising: A NATO-style mutual defence guarantee for Ukraine, provided by the US, and agreed to by Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
That was supposedly the concession won by Donald Trump during his summit with the Russian president in Alaska. US special envoy Steve Witkoff described the apparent breakthrough as “game-changing”.<\/p>\n
But it seems it may be too good to be true. Because judging by the comments from Moscow since then, nothing has changed whatsoever.<\/p>\n
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov described the current discussions about future security guarantees for Ukraine as a “road to nowhere”. And now, “hopeless”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n A blaze at a residential area hit by Russian drones in the Lviv region on Thursday. Pic: State Emergency Service of Ukraine<\/p>\n
On both occasions, the veteran diplomat made it clear that the only security guarantee Russia is willing to accept is one that involves them, referring each time to a proposal put forward by Moscow at talks with Kyiv in 2022.<\/p>\n
Under those terms, Russia would be among a group of guarantors, along with China, and would have an effective veto over any efforts to defend Ukraine.<\/p>\n
It was a non-starter for Kyiv then, and it still is now. But the Kremlin knows this.<\/p>\n
I think it’s a proposal that’s designed to be rejected, so that Russia can continue its attempts to portray Ukraine as the barrier to peace, and try to distance Trump from Europe.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/skynews-lviv-ukraine_6996599.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n A view shows an apartment building hit by Russian drone strikes in Lviv on Thursday. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n
“[Ukraine is] not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement,” Lavrov said in Moscow, while also accusing Europe of “undermining” the “progress” made in Alaska.<\/p>\n
But the only progress appears to be circular – there’s plenty of movement, but it’s going nowhere, like a hamster stuck in a wheel.<\/p>\n
The same goes for the potential meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin.<\/p>\n
At the start of the week, Trump claimed the two sides were “setting it up”, but Moscow still has its caveats.<\/p>\n
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/skynews-volodymyr-zelenskyy_6994666.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Donald Trump greets Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n
“Our president has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet,” Lavrov said, “with the understanding that all issues\u2026are worked out”.<\/p>\n
Moscow claims Zelenskyy is an illegitimate leader, and Russia’s foreign minister hinted that he would need to be re-elected before any peace deal is signed, and before a presidential summit is held.<\/p>\n
Read more from Sky News:<\/strong> So, despite the Trump administration’s optimism that a peace deal is within reach, it is clear that two of the fundamental stumbling blocks remain.<\/p>\n And Russia is in no obvious rush to find a way around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It all sounded so promising: A NATO-style mutual defence guarantee for Ukraine, provided by the US, and agreed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-362710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115068198267567435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Two reasons why Trump is ‘frightened’ of Putin<\/strong><\/a>
Trump sets red line on Ukraine peace deal support<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n