Lavrov: Russia ready for compromises but will not back down on NATO position

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow is prepared to seek “reasonable compromises” on Ukraine, but has no intention of changing its position on NATO’s presence near Russia’s borders.

The statement was made on September 15 at an ambassadors’ conference at the MFA Diplomatic Academy in Moscow. Lavrov was quoted by the Xinhua news agency and the ministry’s official transcript.

“Within the framework of this position, we are ready to seek reasonable compromises, but our fundamental goals have not changed — to ensure our security and to prevent NATO’s presence at our borders,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister also said that Russia welcomes U.S. involvement in resolving the conflict. According to him, “the main thing is that the United States understands the root causes of this conflict — unlike all other Western countries.” Lavrov stressed that Russia has never refused negotiations and is ready for them in both bilateral and trilateral formats.

According to Meduza, Lavrov mentioned a planned meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York at the end of September. U.S. special envoys who visited Moscow and Kyiv in early September called for the resumption of trilateral talks between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia; representatives of both sides suggested they could resume in October.

The energy sector ceasefire remains in question

Lavrov’s remarks came against the backdrop of an unresolved dispute over halting strikes on energy infrastructure. On September 14, President Donald Trump posted a message on Truth Social claiming that Ukraine and Russia had allegedly agreed to suspend attacks on each other’s energy facilities. Neither side confirmed the agreement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv would suspend strikes only “if our partners are ready to guarantee that Russia will indeed refrain from strikes on our electricity system, other energy facilities, critical infrastructure, and food supply routes.” In a CBS interview on September 16, Zelensky went further, demanding that Russia provide a specific list of facilities it wants protected.

Strikes continued in the meantime. In the early hours of September 15, Ukrainian forces attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, while Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure did not stop.

In parallel, Lavrov stepped up his rhetoric over NATO activity in the Arctic, writing last month that the alliance’s exercises in the High North pose a “direct threat” to Russia’s security. NATO rejected this characterization. Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told Newsweek: “NATO is a defensive alliance. We are not a threat to anyone.”