Lavrov's statements are once again creating confusion on the part of the Kremlin, being a cold shower for Donald Trump's efforts to organize a summit for direct negotiations to end the War in Ukraine, according to Politico.
While at the beginning of the week, the White House official announced on social media the organization of a bilateral summit between Zelensky and Putin, the announcement being followed by decisive meetings with representatives of the Coalition of the Willing, the official did not provide many details about this matter.
However, Kremlin officials have been reluctant to hold actual negotiations with Ukraine. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that such a meeting"should be prepared step by step, gradually, at the expert level and going through all the necessary stages."
What did Lavrov say?
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Minister's statements sowed even more seeds of doubt, with Lavrov accusing Zelensky of being unwilling to negotiate. Lavrov claims that the Ukrainian president refuses to rule out possible NATO membership, but also to heed the Kremlin's demands for territorial expansion.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy when the summit agenda is ready, and this agenda is not ready at all,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC News.
"Zelensky said no to everything (n.r. – requests). How can we meet with a person who claims to be a leader?", the Russian diplomat added.
While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that Russia had agreed to a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, presenting the alleged openness to negotiations as progress, European leaders have expressed skepticism that Moscow is truly interested in ending the war and that it will participate in negotiations"in good faith," Politico reports.
"We forget that Russia has not made any concessions and that they are the aggressors in this situation," Kaja Kallas, a senior European diplomat for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Friday.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of stalling peace talks to deliberately delay U.S. sanctions. Trump has said he will impose trade sanctions on Russia's trading partners if the Kremlin refuses to attend a trilateral summit.
