Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday welcomed some of US President-elect Donald Trump’s statements regarding the war in Ukraine, which the Russian foreign minister said recognized the “reality on the ground” in Ukraine. He clarified, however, that Moscow is waiting for the incoming US president to formulate his final “position”.

“When President Trump, once he becomes president, finally formulates his position on the Ukrainian issue, of course we will study it,” he emphasized at a press conference he gave, talking about a wide range of issues.

“First of all, just that they’re starting to talk more about the realities on the ground, that’s probably a commendable thing” noted Lavrov.

Moscow insists that any potential deal to end the war in Ukraine, which began with the Russian invasion nearly three years ago, must take these “realities on the ground” into account.

It is a way to underline that Russia – in a position of strength on the war front – does not expect to return about 20% of the Ukrainian territory it has occupied.

There has been speculation for weeks about conditions being set for possible peace talks following Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Trump often promised on the campaign trail that he would end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” without explaining how he would do that.

Sergei Lavrov reiterated today that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with Trump, but noted that Moscow expects “concrete initiatives”.

Last week, the US president-elect said his team had begun preparing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “end” the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, the head of Russian diplomacy welcomed Trump’s recent statements regarding Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.

Last week, the Republican accused outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden of opening the door to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Ukraine, and argued that it contributed to the Russian invasion in February 2022.

In fact, NATO member states had promised as early as 2008 that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance at some point in the future. However, the US and Germany are reluctant to follow through on this promise, fearing that the Alliance will be drawn into a war with Russia.

Regarding Greenland, which Trump has threatened to annex, Lavrov stressed the need to “listen to the Greenlanders”. Russian authorities, the Russian official said, “they listened to the people of Crimea, Donbas”, referring to the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 and the region of eastern Ukraine that Russia partially owns and claims to annex.

The US has authorized terrorist attacks on energy infrastructure and plans to disable it TurkStreamthe Russian foreign minister also claimed at a press conference when reviewing the results of Russian diplomacy in 2024.