(KYIV) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described an invitation for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to travel to Moscow for negotiations as an “enormous gesture of goodwill,” while simultaneously confirming that Moscow would not halt its full scale invasion of Ukraine during any talks.
The remarks, made during an interview with Russian state propagandists and reported by the BBC, represent the latest in a series of statements from the Kremlin seeking to frame its aggression as a basis for diplomacy. Lavrov referred to Zelenskyy as a “character” and claimed the Ukrainian president need only “come” to Moscow to begin negotiations.
“And this is already an enormous gesture of goodwill on our part, because he has still not revoked his order banning contacts with Putin and his team,” Lavrov said. “So we are not lacking in goodwill, while he, as I understand it, has no shortage of malicious traits.”
The Russian foreign minister added that the Kremlin is prepared for negotiations but made clear that during any such period the so called “special military operation” would not be suspended. The term is used by Moscow to describe its full scale war of aggression against Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
The statement follows Lavrov’s earlier declaration on 8th September 2026 that all of Ukraine should effectively become a “buffer zone” between Russia and the West following the end of hostilities. Speaking during a broadcast on Russia’s Channel One, Lavrov was asked how Moscow planned to guarantee that fighting would not resume within 25 years.
“Everyone is thinking that Russia needs a ‘buffer zone.’ Let Ukraine become this buffer,” he said.
Lavrov also repeated Russian propaganda claims regarding alleged violations of human, linguistic and religious rights in Ukraine and stated that preserving the current Ukrainian government after the end of what he termed the “military phase” is unacceptable to Moscow. The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin first began publicly discussing the creation of a so called “security buffer zone” on Ukrainian territory in the summer of 2023, subsequently stating on multiple occasions the need to expand it, ostensibly to protect Russia’s border regions. Lavrov’s latest remarks extend this concept beyond Ukraine’s border territories to encompass the entire country.
Sources close to the Russian leadership have previously told The Moscow Times that the Kremlin was considering the seizure of additional Ukrainian territories, including parts of Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions, for use in possible future negotiations. On the same day as Lavrov’s buffer zone comments, he stated that Russia is not currently conducting peace talks and urged Western countries not to “fuss” with new proposals to end the war.
Putin assured US President Donald Trump that he has “no aggressive plans toward Europe, not even in his thoughts,” according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov on 8th September 2026.
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