MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at their meeting on Thursday that Europe's and Kiev's claims that the situation on the battlefield is turning in Ukraine's favor are false, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma’s committee on international affairs and leader of the LDPR Party told TASS.

"One big thing is that Sergey Lavrov directly conveyed to his US counterpart information about the real state of affairs at the front, where the Ukrainian armed forces are losing the initiative, and also confirmed the readiness of the Russian side for negotiations. This squashed the attempts of the Zelensky regime and the leaders of the European war party to present a false and inverted picture of the alleged reversal of the situation on the line of contact in favor of Bandera formations," the deputy said.

He also said that the Russian delegation confirmed its desire for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and "specifically warned against pumping the Kiev regime with weapons. This becomes no less important in light of Rubio's remark to reporters that a settlement would require ‘new ideas and proposals.'"

According to the parliamentarian, the continuation of Russian-US contacts is a "positive thing. However, we proceed from the fact that the ‘spirit of Anchorage’ will not replace the fighting spirit of Russian soldiers in achieving their goals. They will be achieved in any case - either at the negotiating table or on the battlefield."