Lavrov hardens peace demands as Russia holds first talks with US

US and Russian officials held more than four hours of talks in Riyadh on Tuesday, their first on ending the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv and its European allies watched anxiously from the sidelines and Moscow raised a major new demand.

Interfax news agency quoted Russian negotiator Yuri Ushakov as saying the talks went well, and conditions were discussed for a meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Ushakov said a summit was unlikely to take place next week.

Even while the meeting was under way, Russia signalled a hardening of its demands.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow it was “not enough” for NATO not to admit Ukraine as a member. She said the alliance must go further by disavowing a promise it made at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Kyiv would join at a future, unspecified, date.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has consistently demanded NATO membership as the only way to guarantee Kyiv's sovereignty.

As European countries discuss the possibility of contributing peacekeepers to back any Ukraine peace deal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said in Riyadh that Moscow would not accept the deployment of NATO troops there, whatever flag they were operating under. The comments by Lavrov and Zakharova signalled that Russia will keep pressing for further concessions.