MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian foreign minister said on Saturday talks on Ukraine with leaders from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, known as the Normandy format, were impossible after the killing of a rebel leader in eastern Ukraine, Interfax agency reported.

“It is impossible to talks about upcoming meetings in the Normandy format as many of our European partners wanted,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

“This is a serious situation that needs to be analyzed,” Lavrov said, referring to the killing of Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine who died in an explosion on Friday.