{"id":91019,"date":"2025-08-23T06:39:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91019"},"modified":"2025-08-23T06:39:50","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T06:39:50","slug":"russia-is-trying-to-stop-meeting-on-peace-and-prolong-war-zelensky-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91019","title":{"rendered":"Russia is trying to stop meeting on peace and prolong war, Zelensky says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of \u201cdoing everything it can\u201d to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to try to end the war.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday, \u201cthat\u2019s like oil and vinegar\u2026 they don\u2019t get along too well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine\u2019s leader \u201cwhen the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all\u201d, accusing Zelensky of saying \u201cno to everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

After an intensive week of diplomacy, in which Trump first met Putin in Alaska and then Zelensky with European leaders in Washington, the US president said the war was turning out to be the most difficult he had tried to stop.<\/p>\n

Trump said after a call with the Russian leader on Monday that he had begun arrangements for a Putin-Zelensky summit that he would join afterwards.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president has backed the move, but he has sought security guarantees from Western allies to prevent any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal: \u201cUkraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meetings between leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a visit to Kyiv, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Trump was aiming to \u201cbreak the deadlock\u201d and the alliance was working on robust security guarantees with the US and Europe to ensure Putin \u201cwill never ever try to attack Ukraine again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine\u2019s security guarantees to reflect Nato\u2019s Article 5, which considers an attack on one member of the alliance an attack against all Nato members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the beginning of a big undertaking, and it is not easy, because guarantees consist of what our partners can give Ukraine, as well as what the Ukrainian army should be like, and where we can find opportunities for the army to maintain its strength,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

Rutte said the alliance was working with Ukraine to define the guarantees, explaining that they would focus on making Ukraine\u2019s military as strong as possible and involve Western security commitments. It was \u201ctoo early to exactly say what will be the outcome\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Security guarantees have been agreed in the past, but not respected. The Nato secretary general insisted lessons had been learned from previous agreements such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for \u201cassurances\u201d from Russia, the US and the UK about its future security.<\/p>\n

Asked by the BBC what he would say to Ukrainians who have little faith anything will come from these latest diplomatic efforts, Zelensky said: \u201cMaybe I\u2019m showboating, but Washington felt like a success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? Because yes, Ukraine needs security guarantees. But without the US, Europe will not give us everything it can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how this will end but this is much better than it was a week or two ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw unity in Washington. It\u2019s still political, but it\u2019s just the first step of everyone working on security guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s foreign minister appeared to dent hopes of any potential summit, telling NBC News that \u201cthere is no meeting planned\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sergei Lavrov said Russia had agreed to show flexibility on a number of issues raised by Trump at the US-Russia summit in Alaska last week.<\/p>\n

He went on to accuse Ukraine of not showing the same flexibility in subsequent talks in Washington, blaming Ukraine for hindering progress toward a peace deal.<\/p>\n

Lavrov said it was \u201cvery clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said this included no Nato membership for Ukraine and discussions of territorial issues: \u201cZelensky said no to everything,\u201d Lavrov said.<\/p>\n

He was speaking after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the BBC that Putin was seeking territorial concessions from Ukraine that were a \u201ctrap that Putin wants us to walk into\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here,\u201d Kallas said.<\/p>\n

Later on Friday, Putin said there was \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d for Russia-US relations, referring to last week\u2019s meeting with Trump in Alaska which he referred to as \u201cvery good, meaningful and frank\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Russian leader said Trump\u2019s \u201cleadership qualities\u201d would help restore relations from recent lows.<\/p>\n

He did not mention Ukraine or a meeting with Zelensky.<\/p>\n

Despite latest efforts to broker a peace deal, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine in weeks on Thursday, launching 574 drone and 40 missiles in one night.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone blew up an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Bryansk, halting oil deliveries along the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia \u2013 the third attack on the pipeline in nine days.<\/p>\n

Hungary and Slovakia are largely dependent on the Druzbha pipeline for their oil supplies, and Budapest says it could take at least five days before operations resume. The two EU member states have complained to the European Commission.<\/p>\n

The European Union sought to cut Russia\u2019s energy supplies after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and aims to phase out Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote to President Trump to complain about the attack on the pipeline, and his officials posted Trump\u2019s handwritten response.<\/p>\n

\u201cViktor \u2013 I do not like hearing this \u2013 I am very angry about it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell Slovakia. You are my great friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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