Vladimir Putin’s attack dog met with Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who vowed his country ‘will not surrender’ to Russia as the negotiations made no progress towards a ceasefire.

Speaking after the failed talks, Lavrov said: ‘We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn’t attack Ukraine, either.’

The Kremlin lackey again accused the West of stoking up tensions and insisted that Russia was carrying out ‘special operations’ in Ukraine.

He said Ukrainians are being used as human shields by ‘so-called territorial defence forces’ and claimed Russia was operating humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians, despite repeated shelling of the escape routes.