Iran Press/ Europe: According to a Russian news agency RIA report, Sergei Lavrov believes Ukraine is still not ready for real peace talks.
Lavrov also told RIA that Ukraine's aim of driving Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea with Western help was "an illusion".
It comes just a few days after Lavrov appeared to put an end to any immediate prospect of peace talks in the 10-month-old conflict.
Late on Monday night, he told Tass news agency: "Our proposals for the demilitarisation and denazification of the territories controlled by the [Ukrainian] regime, the elimination of threats to Russia's security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy.
"The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army."
But his comments had come just hours after Russia's president Vladimir Putin had insisted he wanted to negotiate "with everyone involved about acceptable solutions", and that Kyiv and the West were to blame for the lack of progress so far.
Putin's comment had prompted an angry response from President Zelenskyy's adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, who had said the Russian leader "needs to come back to reality".
But later that day, Ukraine's position appeared to soften, with its foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba suggesting a summit before the end of February hosted by the United Nations, which Russia could attend after it faced prosecution for war crimes.
In late July, Russia's Foreign Minister said that holding peace talks with Ukraine made no sense in the current situation as Moscow presses ahead with its offensive in the pro-Western country.
Lavrov said that the first rounds of talks with Ukraine proved that Kyiv had no “desire to discuss anything in earnest.”
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Russian FM says peace talks with Ukraine make no sense in the current situation
