Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned those who are trying to hinder peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that negotiations would become tougher as time passed.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned potential negotiations a year and a half ago. He said we had nothing against them... Opponents must understand that the longer they take, the harder it will be to agree on anything. It was easy to agree in Istanbul, less than a month after the start of our special military operation. But Ukraine did not want it," Lavrov said in an interview to the RT broadcaster.
The top Russian diplomat stressed that Ukraine's joining NATO was non-negotiable.
Russian President Putin said in June that Russia would cease fire and start talks with Ukraine as soon as Kiev withdrew troops from regions that Russia saw as its own and abandoned plans to join NATO. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the proposal, calling it an ultimatum.