Russia's top diplomat said Friday there are no plans for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss their three-year war, days after US President Donald Trump said he had begun arrangements for them to sit down together.
"There is no meeting planned" between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a taped interview for NBC’s Sunday show "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker."
Trump said in a social media post Monday that he had spoken to Putin and set in motion arrangements for a summit at a location to be decided. Trump added he would join them for a trilateral meeting afterward.
Uncertainty has grown in recent days about Moscow's commitment to US-led peace efforts, as Russian officials have raised objections about cornerstones of the nascent proposals.
Lavrov said Thursday that Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy to discuss peace terms, but only after key issues have first been worked out by senior officials. That could involve a protracted negotiating process because the two sides remain far apart.
Ukraine wants Western security guarantees to deter any postwar Russian attack, and US and European officials are scrambling to come up with detailed proposals of how that might work. But Lavrov said earlier this week that making security arrangements for Ukraine without Moscow’s involvement was pointless.
On Thursday, a major Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine struck an American-owned electronics plant, despite Trump's criticism of Putin for continuing to bomb Ukrainian targets while talking peace.
"The Russians are trying to do anything to avoid the (summit) meeting. The issue is not the meeting itself, the issue is that they do not want to end the war," Zelenskyy said Friday during a press conference alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who was visiting Kyiv.
"It is necessary that this space for avoidance be reduced," Zelenskyy said. "US and European unity will reduce this space."
NATO chief says security guarantees are essential
Rutte said that Trump wants to "break the deadlock" with Putin and engage the United States in providing security guarantees for Ukraine.
"President Trump has made this a priority," he said at a news conference with Zelenskyy.
Rutte explained that guarantees under discussion would rest on two "layers." The first, to take place after a peace deal or long-term ceasefire, would focus on making the Ukrainian armed forces "as strong as possible." The second would involve security commitments provided by Europe and the United States.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Friday that the possibility of Ukraine ceding land to Russia as part of a peace deal to end their three-year war is "a trap" set by Putin.
The Russian leader is demanding Ukrainian concessions in return for halting his army’s invasion but granting him those demands would amount to rewarding the country that started the fighting, Kaja Kallas said.
The recent talk about handing Putin concessions is "exactly the trap that Russia wants us to walk into," Kallas said in an interview with the BBC.
"I mean, the discussion all about what Ukraine should give up, what the concessions that Ukraine is willing to (make), whereas we are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here, they are the ones who are brutally attacking another country and killing people," she said.
"Russia is just dragging feet. It’s clear that Russia does not want peace," Kallas said. "President Trump has been repeatedly saying that the killing has to stop and Putin is just laughing, not stopping the killing, but increasing the killing."
Ukraine strikes a Russian oil pipeline
Ukraine, meanwhile, has hit back at Russia with long-range weapons that are targeting infrastructure supporting Moscow’s war effort. It has hit oil refineries, among other targets, and Russian wholesale gasoline prices have reached record highs in recent days.
Ukrainian forces on Friday targeted the Druzhba oil pipeline in Russia, hitting the Unecha oil pumping station in the Bryansk region, according to the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy, also known as Magyar.
The Druzhba pipeline starts in Russia and takes oil through Belarus and Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary. In Russia, a section of it goes through the Bryansk region and the Unecha district.
Ukraine fired HIMARS rockets and drones at the region in a combined attack, Bryansk regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said in a Telegram post.
