WASHINGTON. U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to broker direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit a setback, with Moscow making clear that a summit is not forthcoming without Ukrainian concessions.
Trump began the week declaring progress after meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House, saying he had started arranging a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting. But by Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said no talks would take place until senior officials worked out major issues, which remain unresolved. “There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov told NBC. “Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all.”
The development undercut Trump’s optimism, which he had described as momentum toward ending the conflict. He told reporters he would decide within two weeks on the next steps if talks do not materialize, raising the possibility of new sanctions or tariffs on Russia.
European leaders initially welcomed Trump’s efforts, seeing them as a shift from his earlier comments that appeared to lean toward Russian demands for Ukraine to cede territory. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, visiting Kyiv, said Trump is determined to “break the deadlock” and is considering U.S. involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine alongside European commitments.
Zelenskyy, however, accused Russia of deliberately obstructing peace efforts. “The Russians are trying to do anything to avoid the meeting. The issue is not the meeting itself, the issue is that they do not want to end the war,” he said Friday.
The setback came as Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the year, striking western Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles. Putin also visited Sarov, a city tied to Russia’s nuclear weapons program, in a pointed reminder of Moscow’s military power.
European Union foreign policy officials warned against considering territorial concessions to Russia as part of any deal. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said such proposals were “a trap” that would reward aggression. “Russia has not made one single concession,” she told the BBC. “They are the aggressor, brutally attacking another country and killing people. Russia does not want peace.”
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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