The Kremlin said on Friday that foreign military contingents cannot provide security guarantees for Ukraine, insisting that substantial groundwork is still needed before any high-level talks between Moscow and Kiev on ending the war.
The comments came a day after 26 nations pledged to offer postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, which include the prospect of international forces operating on land, at sea, and in the air.
“Can Ukraine’s security guarantees be ensured and provided by foreign, especially European and American, military contingents? Definitely not,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency RIA during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“This cannot serve as a security guarantee for Ukraine that would be acceptable to our country,” he said.
Security measures to end the war
Despite US President Donald Trump’s attempts to broker a settlement, there is little indication the war — now in its third year following Russia’s February 2022 offensive— is nearing resolution.
Peskov said all necessary security assurances for Ukraine are already contained in the framework of peace talks held in Istanbul in 2022. That proposal envisioned Ukraine abandoning NATO membership ambitions and adopting a neutral, non-nuclear status, in exchange for security guarantees from the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France.
He added that Moscow is content with the current level of representation in talks with Kiev.
“Before meeting at a high or top level, a huge amount of work needs to be carried out to resolve minor issues, small technical matters, which together make up the entire settlement process,” Peskov said.
North Korean fighters
Peskov also addressed speculation about North Korean involvement, clarifying that North Korean troops are not being deployed in Ukraine but only stationed on Russian territory.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Kim Jong-un on Wednesday for North Korean soldiers' courageous fighting against Ukrainian forces.
"At your initiative, as is well known, your special forces participated in the liberation of the Kursk region," Putin told Kim at a meeting in China.
"Your soldiers fought courageously and heroically."
North Korean troops helped Russia earlier this year eject Ukrainian forces from Russia's western region of Kursk.
