MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Kiev made a "theatrical gesture" by proposing to hold talks with Russia in Mariupol.

Lavrov made the remarks at a news conference on Tuesday on the heels of the talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"A theatrical gesture. Ukrainians do like to stage things so they apparently wanted to stage one more heart-breaking scene," he said when asked to comment on the proposal by Kiev.

He also called on the Ukraine to hurry with a response to Russian proposals, which, as Lavrov said, had been given to Kiev more than 10 days back.

"If we are talking about a serious approach to work as part of the talks, they had better quickly respond to our proposals, which, I repeat, have been on their side for more than 10 days and which, as it happens, even Zelensky hasn’t heard of," the minister said.

Earlier, Lavrov reported that Russian-Ukrainian negotiations stalled because Kiev didn’t respond to Moscow's latest proposals, and statements by the Ukrainian authorities indicate their lack of interest in a dialogue. Nevertheless, as Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the President of the Russia, confirmed, the delegations had a few more lengthy conversations on April 22.