The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has requested new “clarifications” regarding the role of the USA in the attempt to end the war in Ukraine. The controversy on the subject continues for the third consecutive day.
In written responses to press inquiries, Lavrov has escalated the dispute with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio over whether Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had reached an understanding on a peace agreement when they met in Alaska last year.
Russia claims that such an agreement existed, which Lavrov calls the “spirit of Anchorage”. Rubio denies its existence, writes news.ro.
“There was a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement in Alaska. If there had been an agreement, the war would have ended,” Rubio said.
However, the head of Russian diplomacy asserts that Putin would have analyzed a series of proposals from the US, which Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, had brought to Moscow a few days earlier. The Russian president would have listed them point by point. According to the Russian official, Trump, along with Witkoff and Rubio, would have checked if Putin had noted them correctly.
“Therefore, when my colleague, Mr. Rubio, asserts that there were only proposals in Alaska, but no agreement, a question arises about what we actually understand by agreement. If one party – in this case, the USA – has put its proposals for a solution and a way to approach this crisis on the table, and the other party has expressed its consent to these proposals, then to claim that there was no agreement seems quite inelegant,” Lavrov commented.
Lavrov’s critical comments and those of other Russian officials this week indicate a shift in Moscow’s assessment of Washington’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.