While Donald Trump spent a virtually silent and invisible day at the White House, Sergey Lavrov — Putin’s foreign minister — issued some rather revealing comments about the president’s recent summit with European leaders and their plans for Ukrainian security guarantees once the fighting is over.
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“We will safeguard our legitimate interests in a firm and harsh manner,” Lavrov said. “Seriously discussing issues of ensuring security without the Russian Federation is a utopia and a path to nowhere.” He maintained that Russia has veto power over any plans for Ukraine postwar, including security guarantees. He also said China would be an equal partner with Russia in any such arrangements.
Lavrov also virtually shrugged off any chance of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky happening any time soon.
More telling, perhaps, was a statement by Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, who said the summit with Trump was held to begin “lengthy” negotiations over Ukraine and to buy “Russia time to continue pushing Ukraine on the front line.”
My take: Giving a Putin-Zelenskyy summit a 5-percent chance of happening, which was my original estimate, looks overly optimistic.
PICTURED: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.