Despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts to arrange a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that there was “no meeting planned” between the two leaders.
“There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker”.
Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to meet after the US President met with European leaders- European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finland President Alexander Stubb, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.
Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social, “At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.”
Lavrov told the US broadcaster that Putin was “ready to meet Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit,” adding that it was “not ready at all”.
“There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything,” according to Lavrov.