Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he is open to dialogue with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba pursuing a serious discussion of the implementation of the Minsk Agreements on Donbas and those reached by France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, the so-called Normandy-format countries, at the Paris summit last year.

"Should my colleague wish to seriously discuss specific issues concerning Kyiv's implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the agreements of the Normandy-format summit, or our bilateral relations with Ukraine, we are always open to such dialogue. Unfortunately, so far, we have seen no such desire," Lavrov said in response to a question from the media on the Foreign Ministry's website.

Kuleba said in an interview that Lavrov ostensibly has no desire to communicate with him.

"We never avoid substantive and constructive dialogue with anyone. I spoke to Minister Kuleba via video link on April 30 of this year, during a meeting of the Normandy-format foreign ministers. In early September, he requested a telephone conversation with me while I was on a trip to Syria. He wanted to discuss an incident on the conflict line in Donbas. As far as is known, the issue was examined by the [Trilateral] Contact Group a couple of days later," Lavrov said.

"On such topics, Kyiv should contact Donbas directly, as is envisaged by the Minsk Package of Measures, rather than try to politicize the situation and resolve issues through mediators in Moscow, Berlin, and Paris," he said.