Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States on Tuesday of extending the war in Ukraine by one year. He claimed the US administration withdrew from what he referred to as the “Anchorage agreements,” which he alleged were made between former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to reports from Kyiv Independent.
Moscow has frequently alluded to these supposed agreements from the 2025 meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska; however, US officials have denied any such agreements existed.
Lavrov asserted that the US withdrawal from these alleged agreements, supposedly prompted by European pressure, hindered the resolution of the conflict. He remarked, “If the Americans had not withdrawn from the Anchorage agreements, and Europe had not ‘removed’ the United States from them, we would have been living without war for a year now.”
Earlier this month, Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow and Kyiv in an effort to revive peace negotiations. Their trip to Kyiv marked the first since the renewed attempts to bring Russia and Ukraine back to the negotiating table.
The most tangible outcome from their journey was an agreement among Ukraine, the United States, and Russia to resume trilateral negotiations. Previous negotiation rounds saw limited political progress but led to significant humanitarian initiatives, including prisoner exchanges.
Lavrov expressed that Moscow remains open to resuming negotiations, stating, “We have never refused to negotiate, and all negotiations that have taken place were not interrupted at our initiative. If our partners are ready, it is absolutely possible to resume them.”
