Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed doubts on the Vatican as the venue for the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations, days after US President Donald Trump's announcement.
This comes despite the newly inducted Pope Leo's willingness to host the peace talks, as confirmed in an X post by Georgia Meloni, following Trump's calls to Ukrainian president Zelenskyy and NATO leaders.
According to Lavrov, the centre of Catholicism in the world might “not be very comfortable” hosting two nations—that were primarily Orthodox Christian—for peace talks.
"Many people are fantasising about when and where it (the meeting) will take place. We don't have any ideas right now," he said, as per a Reuters report, also adding that seeking such a solution would be “inelegant” on their part too.
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Moscow also continues to question Zelenskyy's legitimacy in leading Kyiv, on grounds of the alleged discrimination that Russian speakers faced in his country, as well as his unopposed continuation as president—after his term expired in May 2024—because his country remains under martial law.
In that regard, Lavrov reiterated an earlier Russian proposal that it would be good if presidential elections were held in Ukraine, so that Moscow could sign a peace deal with someone it considered legitimate.
However, Zelenskyy has rubbished these claims, arguing that Russia, which also had a tightly-controlled political system, was in no place to judge his country's war-necessitated measures.
