Russia’s Lavrov declares at security talks that his country’s goals in Ukraine are unchanged

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Associated Press

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has delivered a blunt message to Western leaders and declared at an international security conference that his government was not prepared to “review its goals” in Ukraine. Lavrov told reporters while attending an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in North Macedonia on Friday, “We aren’t seeing any signals from Kyiv or its masters about their readiness to seek any kind of political settlement” to the war in Ukraine. Participants at the meeting accused Moscow of undermining the Vienna-based organization that originally was created to ease Cold War tensions. Lavrov accused Western diplomats of showing cowardice by refusing to meet with him in Skopje.