Lavrov Slams EU Ceasefire Push, Says Moscow Won't Sign Another Truce

Sergey Lavrov didn't soften a word. The Russian foreign minister said Tuesday the European Union is angling to buy time for Ukraine by floating immediate ceasefire proposals, and that Moscow has no intention of playing along. He told reporters plainly: the EU is stalling.

Moscow's position, in Lavrov's own framing, is that any pause without a clear picture of what follows is a trap. He said Russia will not agree to another truce or ceasefire, whatever it's called, without understanding what happens next.

The comments landed the same day US-mediated negotiations between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow began in Abu Dhabi, a two-day round billed as the first trilateral talks since February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would keep up diplomatic engagement with European partners in the coming weeks and is coordinating extra support with the European Commission to repair energy infrastructure wrecked by Russian strikes.

That damage is fresh. Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo said Russian forces hit energy facilities in eight regions overnight and into the morning, knocking out power in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions, with crews scrambling to restore supply.

On the sidelines, US Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff issued a statement after a meeting in Abu Dhabi involving the US, Ukraine, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and NATO. He said Kyiv and European partners stressed Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, along with security guarantees, and discussed post-conflict security arrangements in Europe.

Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha at the G7 foreign ministers' summit in Paris. Rubio said they discussed negotiations to end the war, energy resilience and defense cooperation, adding that Washington remains focused on a durable and lasting peace. Lavrov also said Moscow has not received any Armenian application to leave the CSTO or the EAEU — Armenia froze its CSTO participation back in February 2024, while Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said last week his country has no plans to quit the EAEU.