US President Donald Trump is trying to win President Vladimir Putin's support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week and which Putin says needs to meet crucial conditions to be acceptable.
Trump is expected to speak with his Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine, US envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday after returning from what he described as a "positive" meeting with Putin in Moscow.
In a broad-ranging interview with the Russian media outlet Izvestia that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine must meet Moscow's demands.
"We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
"Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance."
Moscow is categorically against the deployment of NATO observers to Ukraine, Grushko also reiterated.
"It does not matter under what label NATO contingents were to be deployed on Ukrainian territory: be it the European Union, NATO, or in a national capacity," Grushko said.
"If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict."
Grushko said that a deployment of unarmed post-conflict observers can be discussed only once a peace agreement is worked out.
"We can talk about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that would monitor the implementation of individual aspects of this agreement, or guarantee mechanisms," Grushko said.
"In the meantime, it's just hot air."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accepted the proposed unconditional ceasefire and said on X his nation will "do everything to further intensify diplomacy".
Meanwhile, military chiefs from the "coalition of the willing" convened by British Prime Minister Kier Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will meet in London on Thursday to discuss plans for a Western peacekeeping force to be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Britain and France both have said that they were willing to send a peacekeeping force to monitor any ceasefire and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country was also open to requests.
Macron said in remarks published on Sunday that the stationing of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine is a question for Kyiv to decide - not Moscow.
Grushko said that European allies of Kyiv should understand that only the exclusion of Ukraine's membership in NATO and the elimination of the possibility of deploying foreign military contingents on its territory will work for the region.
"Then the security of Ukraine and the entire region in a broader sense will be ensured, since one of the root causes of the conflict will be eliminated," Grushko said.
Meanwhile, the fighting continues, with Ukraine said to be under increasing pressure in the eastern Donetsk region, part of which has been under Russian control since 2014.
Ukrainian troops are also reported to be in retreat in the Kursk region of Russia, which they seized in a surprise raid in August in an attempt to secure a bargaining chip for future negotiations.
with AP
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