INTERNATIONAL: Russia hopes its military operation in Ukraine will end with a “comprehensive agreement” on security issues and Ukraine agreeing to neutral status, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said during a Saturday media event.

Lavrov has said Moscow is “ready” to look for guarantees of security and “to coordinate them for Ukraine, for the Europeans and, of course, for Russia beyond the expansion of the North-Atlantic treaty.”

Lavrov believes Russia’s cooperation with China will “get stronger” in the face of western sanctions because "at a time when the west is blatantly undermining all the foundations on which the international system is based, Russia and China, as two great powers ,need to think how to carry on in this world."

The view was echoed at a separate event in Beijing on Saturday. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng has said Western sanctions against Russia were getting "more and more outrageous."

Although China has expressed concern about the war in Ukraine, Beijing has fallen short of condemning the Russian invasion. Chinese President has told US President Joe Biden during a video call on Friday, “the Ukraine crisis is something we don't want to see.”