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Despite President Donald Trump's calls to end the Russia-Ukraine War, Russia's top diplomat laid out the major disagreements between Moscow and Kyiv, signalling that the conflict won't end as quickly as the U.S. leader had hoped.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told NBC News on Friday that there was no planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, as major issues, including security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial disputes, remain unresolved.
Lavrov stressed that a summit could happen once "an agenda" is ready.
“There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov said.
"Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda is ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all," he added.
President Trump met separately with Putin and Zelensky earlier this month in the hopes of securing a peace deal between the warring countries, but so far, the two sides have failed to reach an agreement.
The White House is now attempting to arrange a Putin-Zelensky summit; however, Lavrov's latest information reveals the diametrically opposed views of the two men, blaming Ukraine for hindering peace talks and the European leaders who accompanied Zelensky to the White House.
"They say, ‘We cannot allow defeat of Ukraine. We cannot allow Russia to win.’ They speak in these terms: win, defeat, and so on," Lavrov said.
Ukraine is being pressured to give up the Russian-annexed Crimea, along with its eastern Donbas region. Russia is also calling for Ukraine not to join NATO.
"Zelenskyy said no to everything," Lavrov said. "How can we meet with a person who is pretending to be a leader?"
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Lavrov said the country had "proposed several times a peaceful resolution on a diplomatic basis." Russia has also been unwilling to give up the 20% of Ukraine it occupies, insisting that Ukraine remain nonaligned and unarmed.
But Lavrov refused to use the term "invasion" when asked about Russia's actions by NBC, instead using the preferred term "special military operation."
He acknowledged that Ukraine "has the right to exist," but said that it must "let people go."
Putin has, without evidence, accused Kyiv of committing genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, where his forces now occupy.
Lavrov said Russia doesn't have "any interest in territories," but is concerned about people identifying as ethnically Russian "who live on those lands, whose ancestors lived there for centuries and centuries."
However, most of the international community has rejected the idea of Ukraine repressing the Russian language and culture, saying that Russia invaded under false pretenses.
Since Trump took office for his second term in January, Russia's attacks on Ukraine have only doubled, leading some lawmakers to wonder if Putin is stringing the U.S. President along.
On Friday, Putin praised Trump, saying that it might be possible for the U.S. and Russia to fully restore relations, which he said were at "an extremely low point."
"With President Trump, I believe that a light at the end of the tunnel has nonetheless appeared," said Putin, calling their summit in Alaska earlier this month, "very good."
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