Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that attempts by the United States and its European allies to craft post-war security guarantees for Ukraine without Moscow’s direct involvement were “a road to nowhere.” Speaking in Moscow after meeting his Jordanian counterpart, Lavrov said "seriously discussing collective security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia.” Lavrov insisted that any reliable guarantees must be provided “on an equal basis” by Russia and its ally China together with the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The formula revives a draft framework discussed in Istanbul in 2022 that would have barred Ukraine from joining NATO while giving each guarantor—Russia included—power to block a military response to future aggression, effectively handing Moscow a veto over Kyiv’s defence. The remarks undercut assertions by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said after last week’s Alaska talks that President Vladimir Putin had agreed to let the West offer Ukraine Article 5-style protections. Lavrov also tempered expectations of a near-term summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying any meeting would require meticulous preparation to avoid worsening the conflict, now in its fourth year.