Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine and has "something to say" at the talks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a roundtable with members of the foreign diplomatic corps in Moscow, Lavrov said Moscow remains prepared to seek "reasonable compromises" while keeping its core security demands unchanged.
"We have never refused negotiations, and all the negotiations that have taken place were interrupted not at our initiative. Therefore, if our colleagues are ready, I think they can quite reasonably be resumed. We have something to say," he said.
According to the top diplomat, Russia is ready to seek "reasonable compromises," but not on its goals of ensuring national security and preventing NATO from appearing on its borders.
Lavrov also said Russia would not halt military operations for the duration of negotiations.
He stressed that the world could have had the Ukraine conflict over for a year already if European countries had not persuaded the US to abandon agreements reached at the meeting in the state of Alaska last August between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump.
The top Russian diplomat added that he would meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The 81st UN General Assembly high-level week is set to start on Friday and last through Sept. 28.
Lavrov also expressed concern over "increasingly frequent attempts by Western countries to restrict freedom of navigation," saying: "It is also a matter of concern that encroachments on freedom of navigation have become more frequent recently. Since the beginning of this year alone, European states have detained 12 vessels, relying on invented categories unknown to international law, such as the 'shadow fleet' and so on."
He accused European countries of stopping vessels on suspicion that they lacked nationality without sufficient grounds and alleging that they were sailing under false flags.
Russia is restructuring its logistics and will fulfill all its commitments to supply partners despite Western obstacles to shipping, he said.
Lavrov also predicted that military conscription in Ukraine could soon extend to women.
"I have no doubt that women will soon be next," he said.
Lavrov also criticized the International Criminal Court's approach to its Ukraine investigation, saying its prosecutor's office "does not even try to hide" that the investigation is aimed exclusively at Russia.
"Neither the court nor the states parties raised any objections or reservations," he said.
Lavrov drew attention to a reservation Ukraine made when ratifying the Rome Statute in 2024, saying that for eight years war crimes committed by Ukrainian citizens have been excluded from the ICC's jurisdiction.
He described the Ukraine case as a "gold mine" for the ICC, saying that Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and Japan transferred "millions of dollars" to the ICC, publicly stating that the funds were intended for investigations against Russia.
"That means a process against a pre-designated defendant was openly financed. In any national system, this would be regarded as an outright bribery of the court and a commissioned criminal process," he said.
Lavrov also criticized the ICC's involvement in the Palestinian issue, saying the court had taken it up primarily to divert attention from its own internal controversies and create an appearance of impartiality.
He said some Russian partners, including countries represented at the roundtable, continue to place hopes in the ICC to hold Israeli leaders accountable over the situation in Palestine.
"We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians, as you know, and in favor of implementing UN decisions, including the decision to establish a Palestinian state," Lavrov said.
"But for us it is absolutely obvious that this pseudo-international criminal court took up this issue exclusively to create the appearance of its objectivity and divert attention from its internal scandals," he added.
Lavrov said he doubted the Palestine case would make meaningful progress at the ICC or contribute to the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
