Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Western countries of deliberately obstructing peace negotiations over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In an interview broadcast on the state-owned Rossiya TV channel via Telegram, Mr Lavrov claimed, “They are merely looking for an excuse to prevent negotiations.”
He also criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of “stubbornly setting conditions and insisting at all costs on an immediate meeting” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When questioned about Western threats to impose sanctions on Russia if peace negotiations do not take place, Mr Lavrov condemned them as a “violation of the process initiated by Presidents Putin and Trump, which yielded highly positive results. We hope these attempts will fail,” he added.
Diplomatic efforts, notably led by former US President Donald Trump, included a summit between Mr Putin and Mr Trump in Alaska on 15 August, followed by a meeting at the White House with Zelenskyy and European allies three days later.
Despite these efforts, the positions of the two sides remain seemingly irreconcilable.
Russia launched a large-scale military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls about 20% of the country, including Crimea, a region it annexed in 2014.
While Moscow and Kyiv continue to blame each other for stalling plans for a potential meeting between their leaders, Mr Trump announced on Friday that he would take “two weeks” to finalise his position on the conflict.
