Russia does not want war with Ukraine - Lavrov

"If it depends on Russia, then there will be no war. We don't want wars. But we also won't allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian radio stations in an interview.

Lavrov said the West was ignoring Russia's interests but there was at least "something" in written responses submitted by the United States and NATO on Wednesday to Russia's proposals.

Lavrov said he expected to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken again in the next couple of weeks. Their last meeting in Geneva produced no breakthrough but both sides agreed to keep talking.

Lavrov said, without giving details, that the U.S. counter-proposals were better than NATO's. Russia was studying them and Putin would decide how to respond.

The comments were among the most conciliatory that Moscow has made on the Ukraine crisis, which has escalated into one of the tensest East-West standoffs since the Cold War ended three decades ago.