Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.
Reuters reported last week that President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.
Lavrov told NBC News' "Meet the Press" that Putin and US President Donald Trump had discussed the issue of a security guarantee for Ukraine and that Putin had raised the issue of the failed Istanbul discussions of 2022.
At those discussions, Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine's permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other countries, according to a copy of a draft agreement seen by Reuters in 2022.
Lavrov told NBC that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine's security. The group could also include Germany and Turkey and other countries, Lavrov said.
"And the guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear," Lavrov said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the foreign ministry.
Russia seeks protection for Russian-language speakers, territorial discussions
Lavrov also made it clear that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia, that Russia wanted protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine and that there was a territorial discussion to be had with Ukraine.
US VP Vance says Russia has made significant concessions toward Ukraine peace deal
US Vice President JD Vance said Russia has made "significant concessions" towards a negotiated settlement in its war with Ukraine and was confident progress was being made despite the lack of clear advances towards ending the conflict.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker," Vance said Putin has made several concessions, including that Ukraine will receive security guarantees protecting against future Russian aggression.
"I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict," Vance said in comments aired on Sunday.
"They've recognized that they're not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they've acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine."
On Friday President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there was no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
Vance said sanctions would be considered on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that new penalties were unlikely to prompt Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Vance pointed to Trump's announcement this month of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as a punishment for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil as the kind of economic leverage that would be used in pursuit of peace.
"He's tried to make it clear that Russia can be re-invited into the world economy if they stop the killing, but they're going to continue to be isolated if they don't stop the killing," Vance said.
Russia and Ukraine stage new prisoner exchange, Russian defence ministry, Ukraine president say
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 146 prisoners of war from each side on Sunday after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian defence ministry and the Ukrainian president said.
The Russian ministry said all of the freed Russians were in Belarus receiving psychological and medical assistance.
Ukraine also returned to Moscow eight Russian citizens, residents of the Kursk region, the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, writing on the Telegram messaging app, announced that the exchange had taken place, but gave no figures.
The president posted pictures of smiling returnees, saying most of them had been in captivity since 2022, when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour. He said a journalist taken prisoner a month after the invasion was among them.
Zelensky thanked the United Arab Emirates for its role in overseeing the swap.
"The exchanges are continuing. Perhaps that is possible because of our soldiers, who are increasing the exchange fund for Ukraine," the president wrote, referring to the capture of Russian servicemen.