Lavrov: Ukraine’s terms for restarting talks with Russia ‘unrealistic’

Here’s more detail from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s comments to reporters at the G20 summit earlier, where he said Ukraine’s conditions for restarting talks with Moscow were “unrealistic”.

Lavrov said:

All problems are with the Ukrainian side, which is categorically refusing negotiations and putting forward conditions that are obviously unrealistic.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out peace negotiations with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin remains in power, after the Russian leader proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions in September, Qazet.az reports.

Lavrov said western countries are “well aware that this process is hindered by Ukraine, which, including through laws, by Zelenskiy’s decree, bans negotiations with the Russian Federation”, adding:

We want to see concrete evidence that the west is seriously interested in disciplining Zelenskiy and explaining to him that this cannot continue, that this is not in the interests of the Ukrainian people.