Despite Trump claims, Lavrov says no meeting planned between Russia and Ukraine

A top Russian official told NBC News that there was no meeting planned between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, dealing a blow to President Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the war between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said on “Meet the Press” that there “needs to be an agenda first,” before a meeting can take place. “This agenda is not ready at all,” he said.

The comments came about a week afterTrump hailed his summit in Alaska with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as a ground-breaking success.

After the meeting, Trump suggested that Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had agreed to meet and that he was making preparations for their encounter.

But the interview with Lavrov appeared to be the Kremlin’s most direct declaration yet that a summit the White House suggested was imminent was nowhere close to materialising.

In a subsequent interview on NBC, Vice President JD Vance pushed back against the notion that Russians were stringing Trump along with their refusal to set a meeting with Zelensky.

Vance said the Russians had already “made significant concessions,” including recognising that Ukraine would have territorial integrity after the war, that they would not be able to “install a puppet regime in Kyiv,” and that there would be security guarantees for Ukraine.

“Of course, they haven’t been completely there yet, or the war would be over,” Vance said. “But we’re engaging in this diplomatic process in good faith.”

Lavrov recently said Russia would insist on being a part of any future security guarantees for Ukraine, a condition that European and Ukrainian officials widely seen as absurd.