Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won’t accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.

“Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable,” he said. Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war.

“Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said following the meeting.