Part 2/13:
Lavrov dismissed the notion of offering Ukraine assurances about not joining NATO, insisting that the alliance's expansion into Ukraine (and Georgia) is a "direct threat" to Russia. Moscow demands that NATO disavow a 2008 promise made at the Bucharest Summit, which implied Ukraine and Georgia could someday join the alliance—an assertion that NATO officials and Ukrainian leaders reject. Russia’s insistence on this point signals their unwillingness to make significant concessions, effectively freezing negotiations in their tracks.