“Approaches based on ideology, ultimatums and threats lead nowhere“, Lavrov said at the beginning of his meeting with British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, while complaining that “many of our Western colleagues seem to love this way (of communication)”.

At the same time, the Russian minister noted that Moscow is ready to normalize its relations with Britain, and described his meeting with his British counterpart as “unprecedented“.

“If that is indeed the aim of our British colleagues, then of course we will retaliate. Because we cannot be satisfied with a relationship that is probably at its worst point in many years,” Lavrov explained.

“But we can only normalise relations through a dialogue between equals that respects both sides (. . . ) in order to find mutually acceptable solutions,” he added.

In addition to Trash, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is visiting Russia in another diplomatic attempt to de-escalate tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she went to Moscow “to call on Russia to follow the path of diplomacy” and stressed, speaking to Lavrov, that London cannot ignore “the deployment of Russian soldiers” near the border with Ukraine.

“The reality is that we cannot ignore the deployment of more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty,” he said.

“A war in Ukraine would be catastrophic for the Russians and Ukrainians, but also for European security, and NATO has made it clear that any invasion of Ukraine would have massive repercussions and would come at great cost,” Truss stressed.

“There is an alternative path, a path of diplomacy which allows to avoid conflict and bloodshed“, he added.

Now how there can be a diplomatic channel when the Americans and the British are creating provocations on the Russian border in order to have a real war crisis is one question.