Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday said the Kremlin is not weighing territorial concessions for Ukraine in negotiations to end the nearly three-year war.
This past week, U.S. President Donald Trump said after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two sides would begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
“Territorial concessions to what is now called Ukraine were made by the Soviet leadership during the formation of the USSR,” Lavrov told reporters on Monday morning.
Russia controls about 20 percent of eastern Ukraine.
“How should we give in—with Russian people or with rare earth metals?” Lavrov then asked.
The Russian foreign minister also said that he didn’t see any role for the European Union in talks on how to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“If they’re going to come up with some crafty ideas about freezing the conflict like this, and they themselves ... have in mind the continuation of the war, then why invite them?” he asked.
Lavrov is slated to hold talks with U.S. officials, which includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Saudi Arabia this week.
Rubio arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday on a previously planned trip. U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who are set to arrive later on Monday, will join him at the talks with the Russians.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed that Rubio, Waltz, and Witkoff will meet with the Russian delegation in Riyadh on Tuesday.
U.S. officials have not issued any public statements in response to Lavrov’s comments. However, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said this past week that he believes it is not realistic to have Ukraine return to its pre-2014 borders.
“We will have low chance—low chance to survive—without support of the United States,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday, referring to Ukraine.
“We believe that Putin will wage war against NATO. I don’t know if they will want 30 percent of Europe, 50 percent, I don’t know. Nobody knows. But they will have this possibility.”
Trump has said that he wants the Ukraine–Russia war, which started in February 2022, to end.
“I think President Putin wants peace,” he told reporters earlier this month. “President Zelenskyy wants peace, and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed.”
Over the weekend, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was ready to place peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as European Leaders are slated to meet Tuesday in Paris to determine their role in a potential cease-fire.
“The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine,” he wrote in an article for The Telegraph. “It also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.”
The Epoch Times contacted the White House press office for comment on Monday.
