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MOSCOW: Russia has said the United States is no longer an “objective mediator” in its efforts to broker an end to the Ukraine war as it blasted Europe’s plans to bolster defence spending.
“As for the United States, judging by their actions, they appear to be abandoning any claim to the role of an objective mediator and are instead pursuing a course of escalating sanctions pressure on Russia,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told foreign envoys in Moscow on Tuesday.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was earlier quoted by Russia’s Interfax as saying that Russia believed the US is “drifting away from agreements reached between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska last year”.
Separately, President Putin was quoted as saying that Russia was “ready for peace talks with Ukraine on basis of Istanbul-2022.”
