US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov for the first time since February. They discussed Ukraine, as well as the exchange of prisoners between the United States and the Russian Federation.
This was reported by the foreign policy departments of both countries.
Blinken noted that he called on Russia to fulfill the agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain, which it signed in Istanbul. He also convinced Lavrov to agree to the offer of a prisoner exchange — the United States offers to extradite arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia in exchange for ex-military Paul Whelan and basketball player Brittney Greiner.
In addition, Blinken informed Lavrov about the USʼs awareness of further steps in Ukraine and emphasized that the attempt to annex Ukrainian territories would cause an even greater reaction from the West.
"I clearly laid out what their actions we foresee in the coming weeks and months, including pseudo-referendums in these Ukrainian territories, attempts to pretend that the population of these territories want to join Russia and fulfill Putinʼs political goals — to seize as much territory of Ukraine as possible, and try to destroy Ukraine as an independent sovereign state. It is important that the Russians hear from us directly that they will not accept this, and Russia, if it continues to implement these plans, will have to pay an additional price," he explained.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation noted that Lavrov told Blinken that the goals of Russiaʼs "special operations" in Ukraine would be fulfilled. Lavrov also reported that "infusing [Ukraine] with weapons, which are used on a large scale against the civilian population, only continues the agony of the Kyiv regime, prolonging the conflict and increasing the number of victims."