Russian foreign minister says Vatican-led peace talks ‘inelegant’ amid reports of Kremlin disinterest
Pope Leo XIV during the weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, 21 May 2025. EPA-EFE/ANGELO CARCONI Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Washington’s proposal to hold ceasefire talks in the Vatican as “a bit inelegant” at a conference in Moscow on Friday, state news agency TASS has reported . “Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations, it’s a bit inelegant, I would say, for Orthodox countries to be on a Catholic platform,” Lavrov said.