💬 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: As for the diesel deal, it was brought to the table, and we supported it. But Vladimir Zelensky has said publicly on several occasions, “Stop bothering me about this diesel deal. Give me Patriot system missiles instead for I need to keep striking Russia’s energy sector, including its oil refineries.” This is a direct and, moreover, crudely worded challenge to US President Donald Trump, who has actively supported this deal and spoken publicly about it on several occasions. I think everyone understands this by now. They are also fully aware that such behaviour has become typical of Zelensky, who believes that the whole world owes him, while he owes nothing to anyone. He is unwilling to take any constructive steps that would be genuinely fair and based on equality [...] Mr Zelensky has already made it quite clear that he is not interested in holding elections and surrounded the whole idea with conditions that are patently unacceptable. There will be no ceasefire that would make it possible for him to regain his senses and be once again supplied with more weapons. Excerpt from FM Lavrov’s answers to media questions following the 7th CICA Summit (Baku, 15 October 2026)