Lavrov says Russia will pursue Ukraine war aims regardless of Alaska summit understandings

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow would pursue its objectives in the war in Ukraine regardless of the fate of understandings reached at the 2024 US-Russia summit in Alaska.

Speaking after a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministers in Kyrgyzstan, Lavrov said Russia continued to prefer a political and diplomatic settlement but would achieve its goals “under any circumstances.”

His comments came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said proposals made at the Alaska summit to end the war had failed.

Lavrov said Russia had accepted what he described as a US compromise proposal and argued that any failure to implement the understandings was not Moscow’s responsibility.

He said the US had assured Moscow that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was prepared to take the necessary steps toward a settlement.

Lavrov said Russia had fulfilled its commitments under the understandings, adding that “our conscience is clear.”

He also said Washington appeared to have changed its approach to resolving the conflict, citing Rubio’s recent remarks.

Lavrov pointed to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said there was “no longer any Anchorage” or understandings from the summit, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who said: “We have buried the Anchorage agreements.”

“If these are assessments that the Americans share, then what can we do?” Lavrov said. “Of course, we have repeatedly stated that we prefer a political and diplomatic settlement, but we will achieve our goals under any circumstances.”

Lavrov and Rubio met Thursday in Manila on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit and related meetings. The talks, their first since last September, lasted about 37 minutes and also addressed bilateral diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington.

The two sides focused primarily on efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year since Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” in February 2022.