Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov attends the 57th ASEAN Overseas Ministers’ Assembly on the Nationwide Conference Centre in Vientiane, Laos, July 26, 2024. | Photograph credit score: Reuters
Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Saturday he “doesn’t pay attention” to what he known as Ukraine’s contradictory statements on peace talks.
Lavrov spoke after Ukrainian Overseas Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited China for talks this week. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated then that Beijing had despatched a “clear sign” of help for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Responding to questions from Russian journalists on the sidelines of a gathering of the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) within the Lao capital, Lavrov referred disparagingly to the feedback by Zelensky and Kuleba.
Mr. Kuleba, in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper TSN In an interview on Friday with Ukrainian state tv about his go to to Beijing, the Russian president stated Kiev couldn’t be compelled to barter and that China, which has tried to current itself as a mediator after the Russian invasion, respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“This isn’t the primary time Kuleba has stated this, and he has typically stated utterly reverse issues,” Lavrov stated.
“There was speak of negotiations lately. Zelensky spoke of his readiness to lastly sit down on the desk with Russian representatives. I do not take note of them, to be trustworthy,” he added.
Mr Lavrov stated that in talks together with his Chinese language counterpart Wang Yi in Vientiane, they mentioned what was stated throughout Kuleba’s go to and the Russians “perceived that the Chinese language place stays unchanged”.
Mr Lavrov stated Beijing insists the format of any peace talks should be “acceptable to all events”.
Mr Zelenskyy stated this month that Russia ought to be represented at a second peace summit after Russia was not invited to at least one in June in Switzerland and China didn’t attend due to this.
Mr Lavrov additionally touched on Donald Trump’s doable stance on Ukraine if he’s elected US president, after former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote about it in a Wall Avenue Journal article this week.
“As for Trump, I heard that he proposed, as an alternative of simply giving cash to Ukraine, to allocate $500 billion on Lend-Lease phrases,” Lavrov stated, calling the transfer “that of a businessman.”
“I can not touch upon many concepts that are not actually critical,” he added.
“When there’s something critical being proposed, in fact, because the President stated, we’re all the time prepared for an trustworthy dialog, taking into consideration the realities that exist now,” the minister stated.