Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow on Thursday of shirking a meeting between him and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, despite US-led attempts to arrange a summit to end the war.
US President Donald Trump is trying to end Russia’s three-and-a-half year invasion of Ukraine by bringing both Zelensky and Putin to the negotiating table.
But despite high-profile talks with Putin in Alaska last week and separate meetings with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington on Monday, there has been little tangible progress towards a peace deal.
Zelensky said Russia was “trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting”.
“Frankly speaking, the signals coming from Russia are simply outrageous… They don’t want to end this war,” the Ukrainian leader said during an evening address.
“They continue their massive attacks on Ukraine and their ferocious assaults along the front line,” he said.
Zelensky has signalled willingness to meet with Putin, but only after his allies agree on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops.
He has also said any meeting should take place in a “neutral” European country — ruling out a summit in Moscow — and rejected the idea of China helping to guarantee Ukrainian security.
Russia, meanwhile, said that Ukraine did not appear to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking guarantees incompatible with Moscow’s demands.
Trump has set a two-week time frame for assessing the chances of a peace agreement, telling the right-wing media outlet Newsmax that Washington would “have to maybe take a different tack” if the talks fell through.
