US President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there is no progress towards a peaceful solution in Ukraine. Moscow, on the other hand, said there is no meeting planned between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky yet.
Trump showed obvious anger after meeting with Putin in Alaska. He said he was unhappy with a Russian attack on a US factory in Ukraine this week, which caused a fire that injured some of the plant’s employees.
The Ukrainian president said on Friday that Russia was doing everything it could to prevent a meeting between him and Putin.
Trump said he had begun preparations for the Putin-Zelensky meeting after a call with the Russian leader on Monday, which followed their meeting in Alaska, while Zelensky has repeatedly called on Putin to meet with him, saying it was the only way to negotiate an end to the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC that no meeting was planned, but that Putin was “ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda is ready for the summit. And that agenda is not ready at all.”
The statement, which echoed Moscow’s rhetoric that a meeting between the leaders was impossible unless certain conditions were met, was a setback for Trump, who had spent the week touting diplomatic progress in his push to bring Moscow and Kiev closer to peace.
Even as Trump expressed frustration with the slow progress on a potential peace deal, he showed White House reporters a photo of himself meeting Putin on the red carpet in Alaska and said Putin wanted to attend the 2026 World Cup in the United States.
Trump’s comments did not address the fact that Russia has been banned from international competitions such as the 2022 World Cup after invading Ukraine and has not qualified for the 2026 tournament, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
During a visit to a nuclear research center on Friday, Putin said there was “light at the end of the tunnel” for the restoration of U.S.-Russia relations.
Zelensky, meanwhile, dropped his demand for a long-term ceasefire as a precondition for the leaders’ meeting, although he had previously said Ukraine could not negotiate under the threat of gunfire.
Zelensky accused Russia on Thursday of “trying to avoid holding the meeting,” adding that Moscow wanted to continue its offensive.
The issue of possible security guarantees for Ukraine has been at the center of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to broker a peace deal to end the conflict, Klix.ba writes
