Russia is willing to work with Donald Trump's incoming administration to improve relations if the US has serious intentions to do so but it is up to Washington to make the first move, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
Mr Trump, who will return as US president on 20 January, styles himself as a master dealmaker and has vowed to swiftly end the war in Ukraine but not set out how he might achieve that beyond getting president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to end the fighting.
Mr Trump's designated Ukraine envoy, retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, told Fox News on 18 December that both sides were ready for peace talks and that Mr Trump was in a perfect position to execute a deal to end the war.
"If the signals that are coming from the new team in Washington to restore the dialogue that Washington interrupted after the start of a special military operation (war in Ukraine), are serious, of course, we will respond to them," Mr Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
"But the Americans broke (off) the dialogue, so they should make the first move," Mr Lavrov, who is Mr Putin's foreign minister for over 20 years, said.
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions of people and triggered the biggest rupture in relations between Moscow and the west since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
US officials cast Russia as a corrupt autocracy that is the biggest nation-state threat to the United States and has meddled in US elections, jailed US citizens on false charges and perpetrated sabotage campaigns against US allies.
Russian officials say the US is a declining power that has repeatedly ignored Russia's interests since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, while sowing discord inside Russia in an attempt to divide Russian society and further US interests.
Slovakian proposal
President Putin said that Russia is open to a Slovakian proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine to end a conflict he said Russia was determined to bring to a conclusion.
Mr Putin, who this week hosted Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin, said that Mr Fico, an outspoken opponent of European Union support for Ukraine, had offered his country as to host talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Mr Putin said the Slovakian authorities "...would be happy to provide their own country as a platform for negotiations. We are not opposed, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia takes such a neutral position."
Slovakia is seen as one of a growing camp of central and eastern European EU member states that are sceptical of support for Ukraine, and supportive of negotiations with Russia.
Mr Zelensky has repeatedly criticised Slovakia, which borders Ukraine, for the friendly tone Mr Fico has struck towards Russia since his return to power in 2023.
Mr Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is open to talks to end the conflict with Kyiv, but that it would nevertheless achieve its goals in Ukraine.
Mr Putin said that Russia could use the new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik again but was in no hurry to do so.
"We do not exclude the possibility of using it both today and tomorrow, if necessary," Mr Putin said.
If necessary, Mr Putin said, Russia could use more powerful intermediate-range weapons.
Reuters reported last month that Mr Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Mr Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
Russia holds about 20% of Ukrainian territory.Mr Lavrov said Russia saw no point in a weak ceasefire to freeze the war but Moscow wants a legally binding deal for a lasting peace that would ensure the security of both Russia and its neighbours.
"A truce is a path to nowhere," Mr Lavrov said.
"We need final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation and, of course, the legitimate security interests of our neighbours," Mr Lavrov said.
He added that Moscow wanted the legal documents drafted in such a way as to ensure "the impossibility of violating these agreements".
Mr Putin says an arrogant west led by the United States ignored Russia's post-Soviet interests, tried to pull Ukraine into its orbit since 2014 and then used Ukraine to fight a proxy war aimed at weakening - and ultimately destroying - Russia.
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After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution aimed at closer western ties, Russia annexed the Crimea region and began giving military support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The west says Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an imperial-style land grab by Moscow that has strengthened the NATO military alliance and weakened Russia.
Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that its membership of NATO is "achievable", but that Ukraine will have to fight to persuade western allies to make it happen.
