Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday accused Western countries of trying to "block" peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, after a flurry of diplomatic activity appeared to stall.
US President Donald Trump has been championing a bilateral meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents — but both sides have blamed each other for not wanting the talks to come through.
"They're just looking for a pretext to block negotiations," Lavrov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday on Telegram.
He slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for "obstinately insisting, setting conditions, demanding an immediate meeting at all costs" with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov also accused Ukrainian authorities of "attempts to disrupt the process that was laid down by Presidents Putin and Trump, which has yielded very good results".
"We hope that these attempts will be thwarted," he added.
‘No NATO’
In another interview published on Sunday, Labrov said that a group of nations, including United Nations Security Council members, should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.
Lavrov told NBC that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine's security. The group could also include Germany and Türkiye and other countries, Lavrov said.
"And the guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear," Lavrov said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the foreign ministry.
Lavrov also made it clear that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia, that Russia wanted protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine and that there was a territorial discussion to be had with Ukraine.
On Friday, Lavrov said "no meeting" between Zelenskyy and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was planned.
