Lavrov: I don't want to assume Anchorage summit was designed to buy time for Kyiv
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he does not even want to consider the possibility that the 2025 Putin-Trump summit in Alaska was intended to buy time to rearm Kyiv. He added that Moscow is willing to resume negotiations with Ukraine at any time.
Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti; Russian Telegram channel Vy slushali mayak (You have been listening to Radio Mayak), which posted a video of Lavrov's remarks at an embassy roundtable on Russia's war against Ukraine
Quote: "I do not even want to suspect that Alaska, like the actions of the Europeans, was designed to buy time to rearm the Kyiv regime. I don't even want to think about it. But in reality, things turned out the way they did."
Details: Lavrov added that Russia is ready "to resume [negotiations with Ukraine – ed.] at any time from the point at which they were suspended".
He also noted that it has been nearly a year since the meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, and that Washington is now moving away from its claim to be an impartial mediator in efforts to settle Russia's war against Ukraine.
"As for the United States, as far as one can judge by its actions, it appears to be moving away from its claim to be an objective mediator and is following the same course of increasing sanctions pressure on Russia," the minister said.
Lavrov also claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while insisting on negotiations, is "putting forward rude and unrealistic conditions for Moscow".
Quote: "Mr Zelenskyy, who insists on negotiations, is putting forward conditions to Moscow that are completely unrealistic and even rude – and not only to Moscow, but to his European handlers as well. Just recently, he expressly stated that Europe should think about the format of negotiations and propose several options, but Kyiv itself will decide who the negotiator from Europe will be. Enough said."
Details: Lavrov claimed that any hopes of the West acting as an honest mediator in efforts to resolve Russia's aggression against Ukraine have "collapsed and should not be taken seriously".
Previously: On 15 June, Lavrov said Russia is expecting the US president's special envoys to visit again and wants to hear from them how the US intends to implement the agreements on ending Russia's war against Ukraine that were reached between Putin and Trump in Anchorage in the summer of 2025.
Background:
- Trump and Putin met on 15 August 2025 at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. The meeting ended without any agreements being reached or any ceasefire in Ukraine being announced.
- On 16 August 2025, following the talks with Putin, Trump first held a conversation with Zelenskyy and then spoke with him and European leaders. According to Bloomberg, Trump told Zelenskyy and the European leaders that Putin had continued to demand the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, but was prepared to freeze the front line in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts.
- Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated that Ukraine will not agree to territorial concessions in exchange for a ceasefire. He said Donbas would simply become a springboard for a future Russian offensive, as Putin has no intention of ending the war.
- On 15 June, Zelenskyy said he had proposed meeting Putin at the G7 summit in France for talks on ending the war, but that Russia "was not ready to talk".
- On 4 June, Zelenskyy sent a letter to Putin proposing a face-to-face bilateral meeting to end the war. He also said Europe and the US should be involved in the negotiations.
- Trump was supportive of the idea of a bilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
- Meanwhile, Putin said he had read Zelenskyy's open letter and saw "no point in holding a meeting". In September 2025, the Russian ruler made it clear that he does not intend to travel anywhere for talks with the Ukrainian president but is willing to meet him in Moscow.
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