Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Friday that if the West hopes to resolve the situation in Ukraine militarily, peace negotiations are useless.
"If [the West] wants not negotiations, but the victory of Ukraine over Russia on the battlefield, then, probably, there is simply nothing to talk about with the West, since this approach does not allow Ukraine to move forwards towards the peace process," he said at a G20 event in Bali, Indonesia.
In the meantime, Russian forces continue to advance amid the special operation in Ukraine: recently, Russia's troops and Donbass militia liberated the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic, seizing control over the city of Lisichansk.
While the Ukrainian military is being forced from Donbass, the soldiers continue to use weapons supplied by the West to shell cities in the region, which has resulted in multiple civilian casualties.