Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday accused Western countries of deliberately trying to derail peace negotiations over Ukraine, warning that such efforts were doomed to fail.
Speaking in an interview, Lavrov said Western governments were seeking excuses to block dialogue, despite what he described as “fruitful” progress at the Alaska summit on August 15 between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
“They are simply looking for a pretext to prevent negotiations,” Lavrov alleged. “They want this to happen through no fault of theirs, no fault of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, who is also being stubborn, demanding an immediate meeting with Putin, no matter what. This is an attempt to disrupt the process basically laid down by Presidents Putin and Trump, which was quite fruitful. We hope those attempts will be thwarted.”
Following the Alaska summit, further discussions were held in Washington on August 19, where Trump met with Zelensky and European leaders to review potential post-war security guarantees for Ukraine.
Lavrov, accused Zelensky of trying to “shift the focus” away from what he called Ukraine’s internal problems, particularly laws affecting the status of the Russian language and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“The first step, which does not depend on any wishes of Zelensky or anyone else, is the repeal of all laws that banned the Russian language and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in gross violation of the UN Charter,” Lavrov said. “This is why he is trying to shift the focus of the problem, which he will fail to do.”
Lavrov reiterated that Russia remains open to negotiations but insisted that talks must address what Moscow considers fundamental violations of minority rights inside Ukraine.
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