Russia is trying to stop meeting on peace and prolonging the war, says Zelensky

The Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky accused Russia of “doing everything he can” to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to try to end the war.

US President Donald Trump sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday “it’s like petroleum and vinegar … They don’t get along too well”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet the Ukraine leader “” when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this program is not at all ready, “accusing Zelensky to say” no to everything “.

After an intensive week of diplomacy, in which Trump met Putin for the first time in Alaska, then Zelensky with European leaders in Washington, the American president said that war was proving to be the most difficult he had tried to arrest.

Trump said on Monday after a call with the Russian chief that he had started for a Putin-Zelensky summit which he would join later.

The President of Ukraine supported this decision, but he sought guarantees of security for Western allies to prevent any future Russian attack in the event of a peace agreement: “Ukraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meeting between leaders.”

During a visit to Kyiv, NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte said that Trump was aimed at “breaking the dead end” and the alliance was working on robust security guarantees with the United States and Europe to ensure that Putin “will never try to attack Ukraine”.

Speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine security guarantees to reflect article 5 of NATO, which considers an attack on a member of the Alliance an attack on all NATO members.

“This is the beginning of a large company, and it is not easy, because the guarantees consist that our partners can give Ukraine, as well as what the Ukrainian army should be, and where we can find opportunities for the army to maintain its strength,” said Zelensky.

Rutte said that the Alliance was working with Ukraine to define the guarantees, explaining that they would focus on the strengthening of Ukraine soldiers as strong as possible and involve Western security commitments. It was “too early to say exactly what the result will be,” he added.

Security guarantees have been agreed in the past, but not respected. The NATO secretary general insisted that the lessons had been learned from previous agreements such as the Budapest memorandum of 1994, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for “insurance” of Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom on its future safety.

Questioned by the BBC what he would say to the Ukrainians who have little faith that will come from these last diplomatic efforts, Zelensky said: “Maybe I stand out, but Washington was a success.

“Why? Because yes, Ukraine needs security guarantees. But without the United States, Europe will not give us everything it can.

“I don’t know how it will end, but it’s much better than a week or two.

“We have seen the unit in Washington. It is always political, but this is only the first step of all those who work on security guarantees.”

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs seemed to hope for any potential summit, telling NBC News that “no meeting is planned”.

Sergei Lavrov said Russia has agreed to be flexibility on a number of questions raised by Trump at the American Russian summit in Alaska last week.

He then accused Ukraine of not showing the same flexibility in the subsequent talks to Washington, blaming Ukraine to hinder progress towards a peace agreement.

Lavrov said he was “very clear for everyone that there are several principles which, according to Washington, were to be accepted”.

He said it did not understand any membership in NATO to Ukraine and discussions on territorial issues: “Zelensky said no to everything,” said Lavrov.

He spoke after the head of the EU foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, told the BBC that Putin was looking for Ukraine territorial concessions which was a “trap in which Putin wants us to enter”.

“We forget that Russia has not made a single concession and they are the attacker here,” Kallas said.

Later Friday, Putin said there was “light at the end of the tunnel” for Russian-US relations, referring to last week’s meeting with Trump in Alaska that he described as “very good, significant and frank”.

The Russian chief said that Trump’s “leadership qualities” would help restore recent stockings.

He did not mention Ukraine or a meeting with Zelensky.

Despite the last efforts to negotiate a peace agreement, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine on Thursday, launching 574 drones and 40 missiles in one night.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone has exploded an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Bryansk, interrupting oil deliveries along the Druzhba pipeline in Hungary and Slovakia – the third attack on the pipeline in nine days.

Hungary and Slovakia largely depend on the Druzbha pipeline for their oil supplies, and Budapest says that it could take at least five days before the resumption of operations. The two EU member states complained to the European Commission.

The European Union sought to reduce Russia’s energy supplies after its large -scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and aims to eliminate Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote to President Trump to complain about the attack on the pipeline, and his officials published Trump’s handwritten response.

“Viktor – I don’t like to hear this – I’m very angry about it,” he wrote.

“Say Slovakia. You are my great friend.”