ATLANTA — Russia's position on the Ukraine conflict is unchanged, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's comments on maintaining strikes on Russian targets are unhelpful in preparing for new talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, October 30, addressing reporters on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, Reuters reported, quoting Russian news agencies.

Source: Reuters via WNFL

"Our position is known, but what Ukraine intends to bring to the negotiating table, I don't know," Lavrov said. Zelenskiy's frequent comments that Ukraine was acquiring more weapons to strike Russian targets made preparation for new talks difficult, he said: "This kind of attitude doesn't really help much in preparing for negotiations." Russia's position, he said, was unchanged from the very start of what Moscow calls its 'special military operation', and Moscow could not accept Ukraine as a 'military threat to the lawful security interests of the Russian Federation'.

Nov 6–10The Abu Dhabi window Zelenskiy proposed this week for a trilateral meeting of peace negotiators
500 missilesPatriot PAC-3 interceptors in the US sale to Ukraine Lavrov pointed to on Friday
15 killedPeople Britain's foreign secretary said a Russian drone attack killed 'only yesterday', confronting Lavrov in the room
0Joint declarations expected from the Atlanta G20 meeting, which officials say will end with a chair's statement instead

Europe answers back in the same room

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, accused Lavrov of presenting false narratives during the G20 discussions on Ukraine and of showing no genuine readiness to negotiate, Arab News reported. Britain's Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband addressed Lavrov directly during the meeting, Reuters reported in its coverage of the gathering: "Only yesterday your drones attacked and killed 15 people. And there are countless examples like this of you killing innocent civilians throughout this war. We all know you are the aggressor." Lavrov was attending the two-day Atlanta gathering at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's invitation, and the meeting is expected to end without a joint declaration — such statements need a consensus that has been elusive since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sanctions and weapons: 'fundamental issues are not being resolved'

On relations with Washington, Lavrov said fundamental issues were unresolved as sanctions on Moscow remained in force and arms were still being provided for Kyiv. "Fundamental issues are not being resolved. Sanctions remain, all the sanctions from (former President Joe) Biden are echoed by the current administration," he said. He said US cooperation in sharing intelligence with Ukraine had grown, and pointed to the State Department's announcement on Friday that it had approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine.

Both Russia and Ukraine have said they are willing to hold further three-sided talks with the United States for the first time since early in the year. Zelenskiy said this week that he hoped a trilateral meeting of peace negotiators would take place in Abu Dhabi between November 6 and 10, and that Kyiv also wanted Europe involved in the talks on how to end the war. Lavrov's Atlanta remarks set Moscow's opening line for that window: no movement on its core demands, objection to Ukraine's strike campaign, and a complaint that Washington has kept both sanctions and weapons flowing — while Europe's answer, delivered to his face in Atlanta, is that Russia is the aggressor and is not negotiating in good faith.

Sources: Reuters, October 30, 2026 — Lavrov's remarks in Atlanta, the Zelenskiy Abu Dhabi proposal and the Patriot sale reference; Arab News via BytesEU, October 30, 2026 — Kallas's false-narratives accusation and Lavrov's negotiating-table remarks; Reuters via Devdiscourse, October 30, 2026 — Rubio's G20 meeting, Miliband's direct address to Lavrov and the expected chair's statement.