MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday that Western proposals on security guarantees for Ukraine would increase the risk of conflict between Moscow and the West by turning Kyiv into a “strategic provocateur” on Russia’s borders.

Ukraine’s European allies are working to put together a set of guarantees for Ukraine that could be part of a potential peace settlement and would be designed to protect Kyiv from a possible future attack by Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he expected a framework of the security guarantees to be set out as soon as next week.

“Security guarantees must be based on reaching a common understanding that takes into account Russia’s security interests,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She told a news briefing in Moscow that the current proposals were “one-sided and are clearly designed to contain Russia”.

“This line (of proposals) violates the principle of indivisible security and assigns Kyiv the role of a strategic provocateur on Russia’s borders, increasing the risk of the (Nato) alliance becoming involved in an armed conflict with our country.”

Zelensky’s appeal

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that discussions by Kyiv’s partners on security guarantees for Ukraine should take place at the level of leaders and that President Donald Trump should be involved.

The Ukrainian leader also said Trump should be reminded in the coming days of his self—imposed deadline to decide on new measures against Russia as President Putin has failed to commit to a direct meeting with Zelensky.

Ukrainian officials are seeking robust commitments from Kyiv’s allies as part of any peace deal to end the war, now in its fourth year.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2025