Felt the urge to punch Russia’s Lavrov in the face: Ukraine foreign minister

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday (Jan 15) that there had been times when he felt the urge to punch his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the face in talks during the early stages of Russia's invasion in Feb 2022. In an interview with a Ukrainian blogger, Foreign Minister Kuleba was asked about his most difficult set of negotiations (in the war).

Kuleba said the most difficult talks were those "in which you feel simply that you want to go and punch your opposite number in the nose, but you really can't do that."

"And I can say that this occurred two or three times. One occasion was with Lavrov in (the Turkish resort of) Antalya in the spring of 2022," he added. Several rounds of negotiations have been held between Russian and Ukrainian officials since the conflict started - first near Ukraine's border with Belarus and then in Turkey.

Kuleba told the blogger on Monday that talks in Turkey had been difficult and dealt with a ceasefire and arranging humanitarian corridors. No agreement was reached in these talks and there have been no negotiations since.

'An incompetence of Ukrainian leadership'

Reacting to the Ukrainian foreign minister's latest remarks, the Russian foreign ministry said that Kuleba's remarks on Lavrov underscored the incompetence of Kyiv's leadership.

Speaking to the Izvestia newspaper, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, "And that is the problem: uneducated, aggressive people were recruited under the guise of serving as ministers to ruin Ukraine for American money."

"Perhaps he belongs in a no-holds-barred bout rather than the foreign ministry?" Zakharova added.

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Last month, Sergei Lavrov reiterated Moscow's complaint that Ukraine was unwilling to hold peace talks to end the conflict, which will soon complete two years. "I must note an absence of any will for peace on the part of the regime of (Ukrainian President) Zelensky," Lavrov told Tass.

The Russian foreign minister said that Zelensky's representatives think only in categories of war and resort to totally aggressive rhetoric. "There is no consideration of holding peace talks ... Draw your own conclusions," he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out talks with Russia until it withdraws from territories it has occupied since its invasion.

(With inputs from agencies)