Russia Affirms Ukraine's Security Guarantee As A Result Of Peace Deal, Not Prerequisites For Negotiations

JAKARTA - Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said future security guarantees for Ukraine should be the result of a peaceful settlement that overcomes the root causes of conflict problems, instead of pre-negotiational requirements.

"It is important to understand, providing security guarantees is not a condition, but rather a result of a peaceful settlement based on the elimination of the root causes of crisis problems in Ukraine. This will also ensure the security of our country," said Zakharova, launching TASS, August 29.

The diplomat also outlined what Moscow believes to be the result of negotiations: "Demilitarization, denazification, neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, recognition of territorial reality, protection of the rights of Russian citizens and Russian speakers, and an end to persecution of the Canonical Orthodox Church."

"Security guarantees should be based on a common understanding that respects Russia's security interests - not an attempt to turn Ukraine into some kind of vicious monster," he explained.

Zakharova argues that Western proposals on security guarantees for Ukraine will actually have the opposite impact, which is to trigger instability.

"Basically rooted in the foundations of colonial thinking, the so-called security guarantees that are being debated in Europe are not at all like that. The guarantee only accelerates the erosion of strategic stability, both regionally and globally," Zakharova said.

According to him, Moscow views Western initiatives as "a unilateral scheme aimed at stemming Russia, which is designed to draw the Kiev regime deeper into NATO orbit."

He noted that Western efforts undermine Ukraine's neutral, non-nuclear and non-nuclear commitments as stated in the 1990 State Sovereignty Declaration.

"This picture violates the principle of inseparable security and makes Kiev a strategic provocateur on Russia's borders, increasing the risk of the alliance being dragged into armed conflict with our country," Zakharova warned.

"There is nothing new found here, the literature of international law is full of such tactics. However, this is the strategic provocateur that we now have on our borders," he concluded.