Russia Seeks Civilian Monitors in Ukraine as Part of Peace Deal

Russia doesn’t want potential peace agreement monitors in Ukraine to be armed.

Also, for a peace agreement, Ukraine should be “neutral” and the NATO defensive alliance should formally bar Kyiv’s entry, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, according to Russian media.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the potential deployment of European troops in Ukraine would mean NATO’s official and direct involvement in the war.

Lavrov added that Russia has no intention of “passively observing” such developments, stating that this would be “not hybrid, but direct, official, and overt involvement of NATO countries in the war against the Russian Federation,” which, in his words, is “unacceptable.”

For the past three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has pushed the narrative that it is not only fighting Ukraine but also the West and the Alliance itself.

To support this claim, Russian propaganda has spread baseless allegations, including claims that the West was preparing an attack on Russia, that Ukraine was being turned into a Western military stronghold, and that NATO bases and even biological laboratories were being built on Ukrainian soil.

Some argue that were Ukraine barred from NATO and without armed peacekeepers – there would be nothing to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine again in the future after regrouping its beleaguered forces.

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