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Ukraine insists that Russia must be compelled to enter diplomatic talks after President Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Minister dismissed the possibility of imminent peace talks, accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of obstructiveness.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “ready to meet” provided a favorable agenda is established in advance, but Ukraine rejects any of Moscow’s proposals, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Friday. Speaking to NBC, Lavrov, a veteran of the Kremlin since the Soviet era, criticized Zelensky’s stance, suggesting that it hindered potential discussions because Zelensky is “pretending to be a leader”.
During the interview, Lavrov belittled the host for not grasping his arguments, asserting that: “Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when a summit agenda is prepared. This agenda is not ready at all”.
He referenced the recent Alaska meeting where an agreement seemed close as Putin and President Donald Trump had settled on “several points”. Lavrov blamed Ukraine for rejecting these points outright, despite Russia’s claimed willingness to be flexible. He added: “When President Trump presented these issues during the Washington meeting with Zelensky and his European backers, it was evident to all that Washington insisted on certain principles – including no NATO membership and territorial discussions – which Zelensky entirely rejected.”
Responding to Lavrov’s comments, President Zelensky addressed the media while alongside NATO’s Secretary General during a Kyiv visit, dismissing the claim that Ukraine was delaying peace. Advocating for leadership-level dialogues – a trilateral meeting with Zelensky, Putin, and Trump has been widely debated – Zelensky stated: “Resolutions to end the war should happen at the leadership level, yet Russia obstructs the possibility of such meetings. Unlike Russia, Ukraine is unafraid of leader discussions and is fully prepared for productive efforts.”
Should Russia delay negotiations, Ukraine’s allies should leverage this to intensify pressure on Moscow, Zelensky urged, advocating for Russia to be coerced into peace talks. He declared: “We must compel them to engage in diplomacy. We require truly stringent sanctions if Russia refuses a diplomatic resolution or shows no intent to end the war.”
While this would include sanctions, ultimately he said “everything must be done to prevent Russia from continuing to hide from the meeting”.
President Zelensky also responded to earlier comments from the Russian leadership this week, where Lavrov articulated his view in remarks on Wednesday and Thursday that Europe attempting to build a new security infrastructure in Ukraine to deter future wars is actually undermining peace, not supporting it. Lavrov had said a foreign military deployment of peacekeepers to Ukraine, which is ultimately exactly what the West envisions will keep their eastern-European neighbours polite in future, would be “absolutely unacceptable”.
Europeans are trying to “exacerbate” tensions with an “anti-Russian” deployment and Russia should be included in security arrangement planning, he said. Keeping Moscow out of the anti-Russian-invasion planning would be a “road to nowhere”, Lavrov claimed.
In apparent response, President Zelensky called it hypocritical for Russia to invade its neighbours and then insist on having a seat at the table on how to protect those neighbours from itself in future. He said in Kyiv: “When Russia raises the issue of security guarantees, I honestly don’t know who is threatening them yet. They attacked us (…), and I don’t quite understand what guarantees the aggressor needs. Guarantees of what? So for me, this is still unclear. I think that our partners in Europe want to prevent the war from repeating itself, and the only trigger for this is Russia”.
