Russia is ready to work with any U.S. leader willing to engage in "equitable, mutually respectful dialogue," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, while welcoming the stance on Ukraine of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
Vance, chosen this week by Donald Trump as his running mate, wants to cut American military support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and has said Kyiv has no chance of regaining all the territory Russia has taken since it launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
"He's in favor of peace, he's in favor of ending the assistance that's being provided and we can only welcome that because that's what we need - to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons and then the war will end," Lavrov told reporters.
America's European allies are widely concerned about Vance's selection as Trump's vice presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election. Trump had expressed unease about the latest congressional aid package for Ukraine, which was passed in April. But, unlike Vance, did not explicitly oppose it.
Trump also said late last month that he does not accept Russian President Vladimir Putin's terms for ending the war. Putin has said Russia would end the war if Kyiv handed over the four regions in the country's east and south claimed by Moscow.
Trump - who was president from 2017 until 2021 - and U.S. President Joe Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls.
"We will work with any American leader, we will remain ready to work with any U.S. leader, who the U.S. people elect," Lavrov said, if the leader is "willing to engage in equitable, mutually respectful dialogue.
"Under Trump there were more and more sanctions that were imposed, economic sanctions, diplomatic sanctions were imposed, however, at that time ... dialogue was underway between us and Washington at the highest levels," Lavrov said.
"Right now there is no such dialogue," he said of the Biden administration, adding that since Russia's war in Ukraine began in 2022, high level contacts between Washington and Moscow had dried up.
An assessment published this month by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Russia "remains the primary threat to our elections" and unidentified "Russian influence actors" secretly plan to "sway public opinion" in swing states and "diminish U.S. support for Ukraine."
"We do not interfere in other states domestic affairs. This includes the United States," Lavrov said.
He was in New York to chair two United Nations Security Council meetings during Russia's July presidency of the body.
