Russia says West trying to ‘block’ Ukraine peace talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western countries on Sunday (August 24, 2025) of trying to “block” peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, after a flurry of diplomatic activity appeared to stall.

U.S. 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,” Mr. Lavrov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday on Telegram.

Also Read | Pentagon restricts Ukraine’s use of U.S. missiles against Russia, WSJ reports

He slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “obstinately insisting, setting conditions, demanding an immediate meeting at all costs” with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Mr. 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.

On Friday, Mr. Lavrov said “no meeting” between Mr. Zelenskyy and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was planned.

Earlier this week, Mr. Zelenskyy for his part said Russia was “trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting”.

Mr. Zelenskyy has signalled willingness to meet with Mr. Putin, but only after his allies agree on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops.

Moscow said there could be no discussion about such guarantees without it, and said any presence of European troops in Ukraine would be “absolutely unacceptable”.