MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that an amended peace plan for Ukraine must reflect the “spirit and letter” of understandings reached between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump at their Alaska summit.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Lavrov said Russia had welcomed an initial version of a U.S. peace plan for Ukraine – which Kyiv and its allies deemed too favourable for Moscow – but was waiting for an amended “interim” version after Washington had finished coordinating with Ukraine and Europe.
If the amended version did not reflect what Putin and Trump had discussed when they met in Alaska in August, Lavrov said that Russia – whose representatives were reported to be preparing to hold more talks with the U.S. in Abu Dhabi later on Tuesday – would take a very different view of the initiative.
“Our assessments remain valid in the sense that the key provisions of Trump’s (original) plan are based on understandings reached in Anchorage at the Russian-American summit in August this year. And these principles are generally reflected in the plan, which we welcomed,” Lavrov said.
That initial plan had permanently ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine, capped its army at 600,000, proposed handing the rest of Donbas to Russia – albeit as a demilitarised zone – and mandated that Kyiv hold elections within 100 days.
All those clauses are reported to have since been amended or put to one side for now.
Lavrov said Moscow was not rushing Washington, but hoped it would share the latest interim text with Russia when it was ready.
“If the spirit and letter of Anchorage is erased in terms of the key understandings we have established then, of course, it will be a fundamentally different situation (for Russia),” Lavrov warned.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Andrew OsbornEditing by Gleb Bryanski)
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