Lavrov and Rubio discuss Ukraine peace talks

Moscow, April 28 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a telephonic conversation with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, highlighting the importance of strengthening conditions to launch talks on achieving peace in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“The focus was on the Ukraine crisis. As a follow-up to the April 25 conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff, the Foreign Minister and the Secretary of State emphasised the importance of consolidating the emerging prerequisites for launching talks in order to agree on a reliable path to long-term sustainable peace," the statement read.

"The parties continued a fruitful exchange of views on the key aspects of Russia-US political dialogue, which has significantly intensified recently," it added.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that President Putin was ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine without preconditions.

The April 25 meeting between Putin and Witkoff was their fourth this year. According to Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, the conversation, which lasted three hours, was "constructive and quite useful".

On Sunday, in an interview with American media CBS News, Lavrov said that Moscow has repeatedly demonstrated its serious approach to Washington's proposals to build confidence with regard to resolving the Ukraine conflict, but Kyiv is only creating an illusion that it's interested.

“If you believe that it's only Ukraine who is interested in confidence building, I think a short answer would be this is an illusion,” he noted in response to a question.

The top Russian diplomat stressed that Russia had earlier backed US President Donald Trump’s initiative for a 30-day moratorium on strikes against energy facilities and complied with it based on President Vladimir Putin’s order.

On President Trump's angry reaction to Russian strikes on Kyiv, telling his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to "stop", Lavorv stated that Russia only targets military goals or civilian sites used by the military.

“President Putin expressed this so many times, and this is not different this time as well. We never consciously target civilian sites, unlike the Zelensky regime,” he remarked.

“And regarding the ceasefire and regarding the call to stop, President Putin immediately supported President Trump's proposal a few weeks ago to establish a 30-day ceasefire provided we do not repeat mistakes of the last 10 years when deals were signed, and then Ukraine would violate those deals with the support and with encouragement from former Biden administration and European countries,” Lavorv added.

"So, President Putin said ceasefire, yes, but we want the guarantees that the ceasefire would not be used again to beef up the Ukrainian military, and that the supplies of arms should stop, stated the Russian Foreign Minister.

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