Lavrov asserts “no angels” in Kyiv, calls on Ukraine to make first move for peace

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after a meeting with his Lebanese opposite number Gebran Bassi in Moscow, was faced with questions on the situation in Ukraine. He chastised the West for taking the Kyiv administration at its word, and said it was up to them to make the first gesture. “The first steps must be taken by the Kyiv authorities, that is absolutely unarguable, and try to get away from the way our western partners are trying to paint things in Kyiv as angels running things and making no mistakes; that’s just incorrect,” he said. The Russian Defence Ministry announced shortly afterwards that military exercises had begun on the Ukrainian border, and that it was “forced to react to Ukraine’s military machine”.