REUTERS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the Russian side does not mind returning its ambassador to Kyiv and receiving the ambassador of Ukraine in Moscow.

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"The Ukrainian side recalled the ambassador, threatened to break off diplomatic relations [after Russia unleashed aggression in Ukraine in 2014]. However, it seems like someone there has mentioned the probability of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's decision to return the ambassadors. We will not mind. Even in the current situation, our countries are highly interconnected in the economy, in the field of transport, in humanitarian affairs, in family ties. And, of course, it's unreasonable to constantly erect some kind of barriers, for air traffic, for rail transport, and just for communication," he said in an interview for the Rossiyskaya Gazeta government newspaper.

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Lavrov said he had met with his Ukrainian counterpart Vadym Prystaiko only once, namely at the Norman Four summit in Paris in December 2019.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine recalled the then Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko from Moscow for consultations in March 2014. Russia took a similar step in 2016.