Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine at any time, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “We are ready to resume them [the negotiations] at any time from where they left off,” Lavrov said on Tuesday, speaking at a roundtable discussion on Ukraine at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. However, he sharply criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky for presenting “boorish and unrealistic” conditions to Moscow and his European “handlers” for resolving the conflict. Lavrov argued that the US is also stepping back from its role as an effective mediator as a result of increased sanctions and pressure on Russia. According to him, previous Russia-US contacts in Alaska could have been intended to “buy time to arm” Ukraine. “I don’t even want to suspect that the Alaska summit was designed to buy time for Kyiv to arm itself, but that’s how it turned out,” Lavrov said. He also accused Ukraine of attempting to draw Belarus into the conflict by expanding the geography of military operations, while saying Russia remains ready to take “a full range of measures” to defend their state. “All hopes for the West to act as an honest broker in resolving the conflict in Ukraine have failed; there’s no need to take them seriously,” Lavrov added. Possible dialogue It is notable that Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia is ready for dialogue with the EU, according to the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.