Russia's foreign minister Lavrov cut out of Ukraine peace talks, officials say (opens in new tab)

Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov has been almost completely sidelined from Moscow's most important foreign policy track — negotiations on ending Russia's war against Ukraine, two Ukrainian officials and one U.S. official told the Kyiv Independent. For decades, Lavrov served as the public face of Russian diplomacy and one of the Kremlin's most recognizable hardliners. Since the start of Russia's all-out war, he has remained one of the loudest voices defending Moscow's maximalist demands, reg