Sergey Lavrov’s comments come as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy heads to talks with Donald Trump in Florida.
The European Union is “the main obstacle” to peace in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday ahead of a fresh round of peace talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an interview with the Russian state-owned media agency TASS, Lavrov said the EU is “making no secret of the fact that they are getting ready to fight it out with Russia on the battlefield.”
“We see that Zelenskyy’s regime and his European curators are not ready to engage in constructive talks,” he said, adding that the Kremlin “appreciates efforts by President of the United States Donald Trump and his team to achieve a peace settlement.”
Lavrov’s comments were published as Zelenskyy headed in Florida to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-lago estate to resume talks on proposals to end the conflict with Russia. The meeting is expected to start at 1 p.m. Florida time (7 p.m. in Brussels).
The meeting follows weeks of negotiations by envoys from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia since Trump proposed a 28-point peace plan in November. The proposal has been revised to 20 points, with Zelenskyy presenting the details to journalists in Kyiv last week.
Early Saturday, Moscow pummeled the Ukrainian capital with one of its heaviest air assaults in recent weeks. The Russian strikes killed one person, AP reported.
Zelenskyy said Moscow’s continued attacks on Ukraine demonstrated why strong security guarantees are “our most important consideration” in discussing peace proposals. Territorial control of the Donbas region and management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are also important issues to be determined in the peace talks in Florida, he said.
Zelenskyy spoke with several EU leaders ahead of his U.S. visit during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday.