MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there is no agenda for a potential summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing Zelenskyy of saying “no to everything”.
Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker”, Lavrov said Putin had made clear he was ready to meet Zelenskyy to discuss a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine, provided there was a proper agenda for such a session, something he said was lacking for now.
Both Russia and Ukraine are trying to show United States President Donald Trump that they are ready to try to strike a peace deal, something the US leader has said he wants to broker, while accusing the other of not being sincere or ready to negotiate in good faith.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskiy when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all,” Lavrov told NBC, saying no meeting was therefore planned for now.
Lavrov said Russia had agreed to show flexibility on a number of issues raised by Trump at a US-Russia summit last week, but accused Ukraine of not showing the same flexibility in talks with Trump and European allies that followed in Washington.
“He (Trump) clearly indicated – it was very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership (for Ukraine), including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelenskiy said no to everything,” said Lavrov.
“He even said no to, as I said, to cancelling legislation banning the Russian language. How can we meet with a person who is pretending to be a leader?”
