Putin's foreign minister blames US for extra year of war in Ukraine, says Russia could have been at peace

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the U.S. on Sept. 15 of prolonging Moscow's war against Ukraine by a year by withdrawing from what he described as the "Anchorage agreements" reached between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow has repeatedly referred to alleged agreements from Trump's 2025 meeting with Putin in Alaska, although U.S. officials have denied that such agreements existed.

Lavrov claimed that Washington's withdrawal from the purported agreements, allegedly under pressure from Europe, prevented the war from ending.

"If the Americans hadn't backed away from the Anchorage agreements" and Europe hadn't "pulled" the U.S. away from them, "we would have been living without war for a year now," Lavrov said.

His comments came as U.S.-led efforts to broker a broader peace deal remain stalled over Russia's territorial demands. The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire and demanded that Kyiv cede the partially occupied Donbas, a strategically important region in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow is effectively demanding that Ukraine surrender territory that Russian forces have failed to capture militarily. Kyiv has instead called for a ceasefire along the current front line and stressed the need for security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression.

President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to discuss possible limited ceasefires with Trump during a potential meeting in New York next week. Zelensky said Sept. 14 that he wants to discuss halting Russian and Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure and in the Black Sea.

The meeting could take place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly between Sept. 21-23 if the presidents' schedules align. Lavrov said he also plans to meet U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv earlier this month in an attempt to break the deadlock in peace talks. The Kyiv visit was the envoys' first since the latest push to revive negotiations.

The most tangible outcome of their trip was an agreement between Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia to resume trilateral negotiations. Previous rounds produced little political progress but led to major humanitarian initiatives, including prisoner-of-war exchanges.

Lavrov said Moscow remains open to resuming the talks.

"We have never refused to negotiate, and all the talks that have taken place were interrupted not at our initiative. If our colleagues are ready, it is entirely possible to resume them," he said.