Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky has accutilized Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to test to finish the war.
US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders toreceiveher, but he stated on Friday “that’s like oil and vinegar… they don’t receive along too well”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated Putin was ready to meet Ukraine’s leader “when the agfinisha is ready for a summit, and this agfinisha is not ready at all”, accutilizing Zelensky of stateing “no to everything”.
After an intensive week of diplomacy, in which Trump first met Putin in Alquestiona and then Zelensky with European leaders in Washington, the US president stated the war was turning out to be the most difficult he had attempted to stop.
Trump stated after a call with the Russian leader on Monday that he had begun arrangements for a Putin-Zelensky summit that he would join afterwards.
Ukraine’s president has backed the shift, but he has sought security guarantees from Western allies to prevent any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal: “Ukraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meetings between leaders.”
On a visit to Kyiv, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte stated Trump was aiming to “break the deadlock” and the alliance was working on robust security guarantees with the US and Europe to ensure Putin “will never ever test to attack Ukraine again”.
Speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky stated he wanted Ukraine’s security guarantees to reflect Nato’s Article 5, which considers an attack on one member of the alliance an attack against all Nato members.
“This is the launchning of a huge undertaking, and it is not simple, becautilize guarantees consist of what our partners can give Ukraine, as well as what the Ukrainian army should be like, and where we can find opportunities for the army to maintain its strength,” Zelensky stated.
Rutte stated the alliance was working with Ukraine to define the guarantees, explaining that they would focus on creating Ukraine’s military as strong as possible and involve Western security commitments. It was “too early to exactly state what will be the outcome”, he added.
Security guarantees have been agreed in the past, but not respected. The Nato secretary general insisted lessons had been learned from previous agreements such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for “assurances” from Russia, the US and the UK about its future security.
Asked by the BBC what he would state to Ukrainians who have little faith anything will come from these latest diplomatic efforts, Zelensky stated: “Maybe I’m displayboating, but Washington felt like a success.
“Why? Becautilize yes, Ukraine necessarys security guarantees. But without the US, Europe will not give us everything it can.
“I don’t know how this will finish but this is much better than it was a week or two ago.
“We saw unity in Washington. It’s still political, but it’s just the first step of everyone working on security guarantees.”
Russia’s foreign minister appeared to dent hopes of any potential summit, notifying NBC News that “there is no meeting planned”.
Sergei Lavrov stated Russia had agreed to display flexibility on a number of issues raised by Trump at the US-Russia summit in Alquestiona last week.
He went on to accutilize Ukraine of not displaying the same flexibility in subsequent talks in Washington, blaming Ukraine for hindering progress toward a peace deal.
Lavrov stated it was “very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted”.
He stated this included no Nato membership for Ukraine and discussions of territorial issues: “Zelensky stated no to everything,” Lavrov stated.
He was speaking after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas informed the BBC that Putin was seeking territorial concessions from Ukraine that were a “trap that Putin wants us to walk into”.
“We are forreceiveting that Russia has not created one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here,” Kallas stated.
Later on Friday, Putin stated there was “light at the finish of the tunnel” for Russia-US relations, referring to last week’s meeting with Trump in Alquestiona which he referred to as “very good, meaningful and frank”.
The Russian leader stated Trump’s “leadership qualities” would support restore relations from recent lows.
He did not mention Ukraine or a meeting with Zelensky.
Despite latest efforts to broker a peace deal, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine in weeks on Thursday, launching 574 drone and 40 missiles in one night.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone blew up an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Bryansk, halting oil deliveries along the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia – the third attack on the pipeline in nine days.
Hungary and Slovakia are largely depfinishent on the Druzbha pipeline for their oil supplies, and Budapest states it could take at least five days before operations resume. The two EU member states have complained to the European Commission.
The European Union sought to cut Russia’s energy supplies after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and aims to phase out Russian oil and gas by the finish of 2027.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote to President Trump to complain about the attack on the pipeline, and his officials posted Trump’s handwritten response.
“Viktor – I do not like hearing this – I am very angry about it,” he wrote.
“Tell Slovakia. You are my great frifinish.”
(Source: BBC)
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