Russia's Lavrov dismisses Ukraine peace plan, UN bid to revive Black Sea grain deal

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Ukraine's proposed peace plan as well as the latest UN proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative were both "not realistic."

Lavrov spoke after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its Western allies sought to drum up support for Kyiv as it fights a war on its territory against the invading Russia.

"It is completely not feasible," Lavrov said of a 10-point peace blueprint promoted by Kyiv. "It is not possible to implement this. It's not realistic and everybody understands this, but at the same time, they say this is the only basis for negotiations."

Why did Moscow leave the initiative?

He said the conflict would be resolved on the battlefield if Kyiv and the West stuck to that stance.

Lavrov added that Moscow left the Black Sea grain initiative because promises made to Russia - including on removing sanctions on a Russian bank and reconnecting it to the global SWIFT system - had not been met.

He said the latest UN proposals to revive that export corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products were "simply not realistic."

Lavrov said he would visit Pyongyang next month to continue negotiations with his counterpart there off the back of recent agreements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Moscow.

Lavrov accused the West of a neo-colonial mindset in its overtures to the Global South to win backing for Ukraine in the war.

Instead, Lavrov spoke of a "global majority" that was being duped by the West, which he described as an "empire of lies."