Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in a recent addres with the press conference, accused Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin aimed at ending the war.
US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday, “that’s like oil and vinegar… they don’t get along too well.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine’s leader “when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all,” accusing Zelensky of saying “no to everything.”
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.
Russia launched its latest attacks on Ukraine last Thursday — the most intense witnessed in weeks — which has the European Union considering cuts to Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027, similar to considered restrictions imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.