Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that the Kremlin is not currently preparing for a hypothetical peace summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, as they are waiting for both parties to specify the points to be discussed, a scenario they still see as distant.
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The statements by Minister Lavrov come nearly a week after the summit between Donald Trump and Putin in Alaska, where the Russian leader reportedly proposed a peace deal in exchange for territory in Ukraine, an idea that the US president seemed to support in the following days.
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Later at the White House, Trump met with Zelensky and several European leaders, where they even discussed a summit with Putin in the next two weeks.
Why does Russia not want a meeting between Putin and Zelensky?
“Putin will be ready to meet with Zelensky when the issues are ready to be discussed at a summit, and these issues are not ready at all,” said Sergei Lavrov according to previews of an interview with NBC that will be broadcast next Sunday in its entirety.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs reiterated that the Russian president “has made it clear” that he is willing to meet “as long as this meeting truly has a presidential agenda.”
Lavrov, on the other hand, pointed out this Friday that Russia intends to be “flexible” regarding several of the proposals made by Donald Trump on Ukraine during the summit held last week in Alaska.
The Russian foreign minister stated, “President Trump proposed several issues and, regarding some of them, we are willing to show greater flexibility.”
Russia continues its advance on Ukraine
Prior to the Alaska summit with Putin, in a phone call Zelensky and European leaders agreed with Trump that the priority was to achieve an immediate ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. However, the Russian president would have convinced the US president to negotiate the end of the war, which takes much longer.
Several analysts believe that Russia prefers to avoid a ceasefire and continue advancing in Ukrainian territory.
In fact, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported this Friday that its troops took three new localities in the last 24 hours in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, after the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed yesterday to have “liberated” six areas linked to the Pokrovsk front.
Zelensky accused Russia of intensifying its offensive in the east in an attempt to showcase its strength ahead of potential peace negotiations, urging his partners to maintain political and economic pressure until a ceasefire is reached.