During a press conference at the ASEAN foreign ministerial in Vientiane, Laos on July 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked about Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s visit to China, where Kuleba reportedly discussed China’s peace proposal and expressed an openness to begin negotiations with Russia. Lavrov responded with a strong dose of skepticism of any news coming out of Kyiv, according to a report in RT. “This is not the first time he has said this, and at times he said the exact opposite,” the minister said, and added “I don’t listen to them, to be honest,” referring to both Kuleba and Zelensky.
Lavrov said that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had briefed him on the talks with Kuleba. “We believe that China’s position remains unchanged ... which is to focus on the root causes of the conflict,” Lavrov said, and added that China has insisted any peace talk format must be “acceptable to all sides.”
