West trying to 'block' peace talks: Russia

MOSCOW/KYIV — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday that Western countries were trying to "block" peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, after a flurry of diplomatic activity appeared to stall.

US President Donald Trump has been championing a bilateral meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents — but both sides have blamed each other for not wanting the talks to come through, Agence France-Presse reported.

"They're just looking for a pretext to block negotiations," Lavrov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired on Sunday on Telegram.

He slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for "obstinately insisting, setting conditions, demanding an immediate meeting at all costs" with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, Lavrov said "no meeting" between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin was planned.

Earlier last week, Zelensky, for his part, said Russia was "trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting".

"I've reaffirmed my readiness for any format of meeting with the head of Russia," Zelensky wrote on X after speaking with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday.

"President Ramaphosa stressed the urgency of holding bilateral and trilateral meetings between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine and the United States as key to signal a firm commitment to ending the war," said a statement from his office.

Ramaphosa, who currently chairs the G20, spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, the statement added.

Having spoken with Putin recently, Ramaphosa will also be speaking with other European leaders in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, US special envoy Keith Kellogg attended Ukraine's independence celebrations on Sunday in Kyiv. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Ukraine's capital on Sunday morning for meetings with Zelensky.

Despite diplomatic efforts, fighting showed no signs of abating over the weekend.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted 95 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Sunday.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 72 drones and decoys, along with a cruise missile, into Ukraine overnight into Sunday. Of these, 48 drones were shot down or jammed.

Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions, following the arrest of a Ukrainian suspect in Italy, Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said on Friday on social media.

Polyanskiy said the meeting will take place on Tuesday under the presidency of Panama.

Agencies via Xinhua