On Thursday, March 2, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov held the first personal meeting since the beginning of the war, which was unleashed by the Kremlin in Ukraine.

It took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the capital of India, New Delhi.

This was reported by the Wall Street Journal with reference to unnamed US officials.

The brief meeting between Blinken and Lavrov was unplanned and lasted about 10 minutes. 

Blinken called on Russia to rejoin the New START nuclear weapons treaty, from which Russia has officially withdrawn.

He also pressed for Russia to release former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison on espionage charges, and stressed the continued support of US allies for Ukraine.

The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, confirmed that the heads of the foreign policy departments of Russia and the USA talked, but did not call the meeting full-fledged negotiations. 

"Blinken asked for contact with Lavrov.

During the second session of the "twenty", Serhii Viktorovych talked.

There were no negotiations, meetings, etc.," she said.

Blinken and Lavrov last met in person for talks in Geneva in January 2022, just over a month before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

We will remind, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken does not see evidence that Russia is really ready to start meaningful diplomatic efforts to stop its aggression in Ukraine.

Read also:

• World news

• War in Ukraine

• News of Ukraine: video