WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington does not see Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s comment that Moscow is open to talks with the West over the war in Ukraine as a “constructive, legitimate offer” to engage in dialogue, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
Lavrov said earlier on Tuesday that Moscow was open to talks but had yet to receive any serious proposal to negotiate.
Price said during a regular press briefing that if Russia was serious about talks, a first step would be to stop its “brutal assault” on Ukraine.
“We do not see this as a constructive, legitimate offer to engage in the dialogue and diplomacy that is absolutely necessary to see an end to this brutal war of aggression,” Price said.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Simon Lewis; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
