'Won't drop our conditions': Lavrov says he is ready for talks with Rubio but won’t compromise on Ukraine terms

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday (November 9, 2025) he was prepared to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio but stressed that Moscow would not compromise on its core conditions for ending the war in Ukraine.

This comes after Last month US President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has dismissed Western media reports suggesting Lavrov had fallen out of favour with Putin after the Budapest summit was scrapped. Reports claimed that Russia’s foreign ministry had informed Washington that Moscow remained firm on its demands over Ukraine.

‘Ready to hold face-to-face meetings’

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication,” Lavrov told state news agency RIA Novosti. “It is important for discussing the Ukrainian issue and promoting the bilateral agenda. That is why we communicate by telephone and are ready to hold face-to-face meetings when necessary.”

Nearly four years into the conflict, Russian forces continue to advance and now control around 19% of Ukrainian territory — land Moscow insists is legally part of Russia, though Kyiv and Western capitals reject that claim.

Putin’s core demands unchanged

Lavrov said the “understandings” reached between Putin and Trump at their 15 August summit in Anchorage were based on Putin’s June 2024 peace terms and ideas proposed by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.

Putin’s conditions require Kyiv to formally abandon its bid to join NATO and withdraw its forces from the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims as Russian territory — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia already controls Crimea, annexed in 2014, along with nearly all of Luhansk, about 80% of Donetsk, and most of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, as well as smaller parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Kyiv refuses to cede territory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out giving up any territory, saying such concessions would undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and encourage further Russian aggression.

Moscow warns over frozen assets

“We are now awaiting confirmation from the United States that the Anchorage agreements remain in force,” Lavrov said.

He added that “no one questions the territorial integrity of Russia and the choice of the residents of Crimea, Donbas and Novorossiya” to reunite with their “historical homeland.”

Novorossiya, or “New Russia”, refers to a region of south-eastern Ukraine that was part of the Tsarist empire and is often cited by Moscow to justify its territorial claims.

When asked about European proposals to use €210 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine, Lavrov said there was “no legal way” to do so and warned that Russia would retaliate if the assets were seized.

Arms control talks under review

Lavrov also revealed that Washington had informed Moscow via diplomatic channels that it was reviewing Putin’s proposal to extend the limitations set out in the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) beyond its scheduled expiry in February 2026.