Russian FM Lavrov: No room for EU at Ukraine talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sees no point in EU representatives taking part in Tuesday's scheduled talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on the war in Ukraine.

"I don't know what they would do at the negotiating table ... if they are going to sit [there] with the aim of continuing war, then why invite them?" Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Monday.

His remarks followed demands from the EU to also be involved in discussions on ending the almost three-year conflict between Russian and Ukraine.

Ahead of his first meeting with his new US counterpart Marco Rubio in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Lavrov said the Europeans had been involved in talks on several previous occasions without contributing to a solution.

Russia accuses the West of having contributed to the overthrow of the pro-Moscow Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. This led to a violent conflict of secession in Ukraine's historically Russified eastern Donbass region.

Moscow also claims that the 2015 Minsk agreement on a ceasefire in the Donbass was also concluded with the mediation of Germany and France in order to strengthen Ukraine militarily.

Lavrov also ruled out making territorial concessions to Ukraine in the course of possible negotiations.

The minister said that he primarily wanted to listen to ideas of the US side at his meeting with Rubio on Tuesday.

During a telephone call last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump spoke about the need to leave behind the "absolutely abnormal time in relations between the two superpowers," Lavrov said.

The aim is to resume dialogue on all issues, including the situation in the Middle East and other troubled regions of the world in addition to Ukraine, according to the minister.

Russia would respond to any proposals from the US side, he added.

Lavrov, who is accompanied in Riyadh by Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, said that further steps would be discussed afterwards.

According to the Kremlin, the talks are also about preparing for a possible meeting between Putin and Trump in Saudi Arabia.