He described the meeting as “difficult” and accused Lavrov of bringing “traditional narratives” to the table.
“I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender,” said Kuleba.
Tried ‘diplomatic means’
Lavrov, meanwhile, said Russia wants to continue negotiations with Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin would not refuse a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss “specific” issues.
Lavrov said Russia would not have started the conflict in Ukraine if the West had not rejected “our proposal on security guarantees“.
“Until the end, we wanted to resolve the situation in Ukraine through diplomatic means,” he said.
Western nations were behaving dangerously over Ukraine, and Russia’s “special military operation” there was going according to plan, he added.
“We will come out of this crisis with refreshed views of the world – with no illusions about the West. We will try to never again be dependent on the West,” he said.
The meeting between Lavrov and Kuleba took place on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum near Antalya on Thursday. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also participated. Kuleba said earlier his team will be “pressing for the maximum”.
“Russia is not yet close to entertaining peace, though it is slowly changing its stance,” Aydin said. “Its initially uncompromising posture is slowly giving way to a negotiation stance though not yet enough for a concrete outcome.”
Soner Cagaptay, from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, echoed the comments.
“I think this is really not a moment for Putin to accept humility and step down,” he said.
“But I think this is still a significant achievement for Turkish diplomats, the fact that they can get the foreign ministers of these two parties in brutal conflict to sit together around a table in a neutral location, it’s a very significant achievement.”
