A meeting between Liz Truss and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow descended into accusations, recriminations and sarcastic taunts about the British foreign secretary’s supposed lack of geographical knowledge.
The pair conducted a testy press conference in which Mr Lavrov the meeting was like a mute person talking to a deaf person. He added: “We appear to be listening but we’re not hearing anything.”
Ms Truss hit back at this characterisation, saying she had presented the UK’s perspective and sought to deter Russia from invading Ukraine.
Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, reported that when the British foreign secretary demanded that Russia withdraws troops from Ukraine’s borders, Mr Lavrov asked: “You do recognise Russia’s sovereignty over the Rostov and Voronezh regions?”
Ms Truss reportedly said the UK would “never recognise Russia’s sovereignty over those regions”. Two regions which are parts of Russia.
Meanwhile Boris Johnson said on a visit to Warsaw that the Ukraine crisis has reached “the most dangerous moment” since it began and warned that the intelligence on Russia’s troop movements remained “grim”.
