Lavrov: Peacekeeping proposals emanating from London and Paris were a deceit

Russia’s foreign minister has said that the UK and France are engaged in further fuelling conflict in Ukraine with discussion of a European peacekeeping force putting troops on the ground in the country in the event of a peace deal.

Speaking in Qatar, Sergei Lavrov said that Europe’s approach to the conflict insists on heating it up, rather than cooling it down and looking at the root causes.

He said that the balance of forces had changed in Europe, and that European countries were trying to undermine this with new packages of military aid for Ukraine. Lavrov said that the peacekeeping proposals emanating from London and Paris were a deceit aimed at pumping Ukraine full of more weapons, that would draw Ukraine further into Nato’s sphere and infringe on the rights of Russian-speakers there.

Lavrov also announced there would be a US-Russia meeting in Istanbul on Thursday, and accused European countries of lying when they say that Russia is unwilling to negotiate over Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly said it would hold talks over the war while also insisting on red lines over territory seizures and future security guarantees that Ukraine has found unacceptable.

US-Ukraine minerals deal does not contain security guarantee – reports

Reuters is carrying more details of the reported agreement between Ukraine and the US over the extraction of Ukraine’s mineral wealth by the Trump administration.

The news agency reports a source familiar with the contents of the draft agreement said that it does not specify any US security guarantees or continued flow of weapons, but says that the United States wants Ukraine to be “free, sovereign and secure.”

One of the sources familiar with the deal told Reuters that future weapons shipments are still being discussed between Washington and Kyiv