MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Russia is always open for a serious dialogue with Ukraine but Kiev is not interested in it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday commenting on his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba’s words about the lack of contact between them.

"If my Ukrainian colleague wants to discuss seriously concrete matters concerning the implementation of the Minsk accords, the Paris Normandy-format summit agreements or our bilateral relation with Ukraine, we are always open for such dialogue. Regrettably, we see no such intentions so far," he said.

Lavrov also said that Kuleba had requested a telephone conversation in early September to discuss an incident at the contact line in Donbass. "Indeed, he requested a telephone conversation with me in early September, when I was visiting Syria. He wanted to discuss an incident at the contact line in Donbass. As far as I know, this matter was raised at a Contact Group meeting a couple of days later," he said.

"I think that on such topics Kiev should better contact directly Donbass, as envisaged by the Minsk Package of Measures, rather than try to politicize the situation and settle things via Moscow’s, Berlin’s and Paris’ mediation," he stressed.

In an interview with the Novoye Vremya radio station on Thursday, the Ukrainian foreign minister said he regretted that he had no contacts with Lavrov. He said he had asked the Russian side to organize talks with his Russian counterpart to discuss aggravation of the situation in Donbass but the talks were never held.