Lavrov: Special Military Operation in Ukraine is going according to plan

Speaking to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Lavrov stressed that Russia's “goals will surely be achieved”.

Yesterday, a senior US defence official said the Russian campaign to take control of the Donbas region was “at least days behind where they wanted to be”, with progress “slow and uneven”.

For peace talks, although they have not been held face-to-face for several weeks, Lavrov said discussions on a draft of a possible treaty were being discussed daily with video conference.

“We are for the continuation of negotiations, even though it is not going well”, he said, the BBC writes.

Lavrov accused the United States and NATO countries of viewing Ukraine as a “via” to rein in Russia and said they had forced Kiev to make a “artificial, fake: either with the West or with Moscow”.

“If the US and NATO are really interested in resolving the crisis in Ukraine, then first of all, they must wake up and stop supplying Kyiv's regime with weapons and ammunition”, Lavrov said.