Lavrov attends G20 summit as Russia calls his hospitalisation reports 'height of fakery'

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 summit, sending Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov instead. After Lavrov landed in Indonesia, AP published a story claiming that he is ill and he has been hospitalised. The AP report cited three Indonesian government and medical officers and claimed that Lavrov was being treated for a heart condition.

Russia's foreign ministry has denied the report and called it "height of fakery." Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharov shared a video on Telegram in which she asks Lavrov what he thinks about media reports claiming has been hospitalized, to which Lavrov replies, "Well, they have been claiming that our president is sick for some 10 years. It is all a game, which is nothing new in politics. I wish the Western journalists were more honest than they are and write the truth a little more often." According to a report from CNBC, Bali Governor I Wayan Koster said that Lavrov did visit a hospital in Bali, but only for a routine check up. The governor added that Lavrov was in good health. 

Conflicting reports about Lavrov's hospitalisation 

It is not clear if the Russian foreign ministry is denying that he was hospitalised or denying that he visited the hospital. Lavrov also reportedly left a gathering during the G20 summit, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began addressing the summit virtually. Meanwhile, Russia-Ukraine war remained the focus in the G20 summit. The Ukrainian president, after addressing the summit virtually, posted on Telegram a post which detailed Ukraine's formula for peace. "Ukraine has always been a leader in peacekeeping efforts, and the world has seen it. And if Russia says that it supposedly wants to end this war, let it prove it with actions. We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation. There will be no Minsk-3, which Russia will violate immediately after the agreement. There is a Ukrainian formula for peace. Peace for Ukraine, Europe and the world. And there is a set of solutions that can be implemented to really guarantee peace," Zelenskyy said. The Russian foreign minister called Ukraine's condition for peace "unrealistic".