Moscow remains ready to continue efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday morning, adding that it has been and continues to be open to political negotiations. At the same time, the Russian foreign minister, who was speaking at a press conference presenting a review of Russia’s diplomatic activity for 2025, accused the West of undermining every initiative aimed at a diplomatic resolution of the issue.

Lavrov referred to repeated statements by Vladimir Putin, saying: “We are committed, as the president of the Russian Federation has repeatedly emphasized, to seeking a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis.”

According to the Russian foreign minister, if one examines the evolution of the crisis since 2014, and especially after 2022, “there has been no lack of goodwill on the part of the Russian Federation with regard to reaching political agreements.” As he claimed, in every case Western countries — and primarily European ones — “did everything possible to undermine these efforts.”

Lavrov also accused Western governments of following the same tactic with regard to initiatives put forward by the American side. As he said, “they behave in exactly the same way toward the initiatives promoted by the administration of Donald Trump, trying by every means to persuade the U.S. administration not to negotiate with the Russian Federation.”