Russian Foreign Minister Says No Putin-Zelenskyy Summit Planned

Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that there is no meeting planned between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Lavrov told NBC that Putin was ready to meet Zelenskyy but there was no agenda for a summit. 

“Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all,” he said. The remarks came after Zelenskyy accused Russia of doing everything it can to prevent a meeting with Putin. 

Lavrov, however, accused Zelenskyy of saying “no to everything”. He claimed that Russia intends to show flexibility on a number of issues but Ukraine wasn’t doing so. The remarks came after the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, after which Russia launched one of its largest attacks on Ukraine this year.

“President Putin said clearly that he is ready to meet provided this meeting is really going to have an agenda, presidential agenda,” Lavrov said. “President Trump suggested, after Anchorage, several points which we share and on some of them, we agreed to be…to show some flexibility,” he added. 

He asserted that it was very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and “Zelenskyy said no to everything,” NBC reported. 

Lavrov claimed “He even said no to, as I said, to cancel legislation prohibiting the Russian language. How can we meet with a person who is pretending to be a leader?”

Zelenskyy has claimed to do everything he can to secure a summit between both the nations while urging partners to put sanctions on Russia if it does not cooperate.