“It's part of the conflict.” Russia says the EU cannot play any role as a guarantor for a peace deal in Ukraine

The European Union cannot act as a guarantor or as an observer of a ceasefire in Ukraine, as it is part of the conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexandr Gruško said on Friday, EFE and Agerpres report.

“Talking about any kind of observer or guarantor role in the case of the European Union, given the catastrophic experience accumulated in recent years and the subversive role of the EU, is absolutely unimaginable,” said the Russian official, quoted by the Interfax agency. “It's unimaginable and everyone understands that,” he insisted.

The Russian official's reaction comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the document with US security guarantees for Ukraine is ready for signing. Speaking on this subject before the US Senate, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the respective security guarantees for Ukraine could also include the deployment of European troops on the ground, but without US troops.

But Russia has already repeatedly conveyed that it rejects any deployment of Western troops in Ukraine, stressing that precisely NATO's approach to Russian borders is a cause of this war. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have accused European supporters of Ukraine of making demands that are internally unacceptable to Russia so that they can accuse it of not wanting to make peace, such as sending European peacekeeping troops to Ukraine (in the event of a peace agreement), paying war “reparations” by Russia, or rejecting any territorial concessions from Ukraine.

Zelenski called for security guarantees similar to those provided by Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. But he did not give details of the contents of the security safeguards document which he claims is now finalised. However, according to Western media, US President Donald Trump would have conditioned the granting of security guarantees to Ukraine on its total withdrawal from the Donbas region, a key condition set by Putin to stop the war.