Russia affirms that there is “no planned meeting” between Putin and Zelensky

Russia said on Friday that there was “no planned meeting” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov in an interview with the American channel NBC.

There is no planned meeting […]Putin is ready to meet Zelensky when the agenda of this summit is ready. And this agenda is absolutely not ready.

US leader Donald Trump, who aims to put an end to the Russian assault against Ukraine launched in 2022, announced to prepare for a meeting between Russian presidents Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky, but the participation of the two leaders seems far from being acquired.

According to Mr. Lavrov, Washington would like the belligerents to accept several principles for the future regulation, including Ukraine’s non-adhesion to theTake and the discussion of territorial exchanges.

More Zelensky a dit [non] to all of thisaccused Sergei Lavrov.

This week, Mr. Lavrov had already accused kyiv of not wanting a fair and sustainable regulations conflict and estimated that Europeans were doing fairly clumsy attempts To convince Donald Trump to continue to arm Ukraine.

The Kremlin agrees on the principle of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, but wants it to take place in the final phase of peace talks between the two countries.

However, the positions of the two camps still seem to be irreconcilable.

Putin wants escape has a meeting for peace, said Zelensky

Mr. Zelensky, for his part, said many times in recent months ready to meet his Russian counterpart, despite a decree he signed in 2022 prohibiting any negotiation with Mr. Putin.

The Ukrainian president had accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday of seeking to seek escape A meeting intended to find a way out of the war caused by the Russian invasion. Donald Trump also tempered his enthusiasm.

Currently, the signals sent by Russia are simply indecent. They try to escape the need to organize a meetingaccused Mr. Zelensky in his daily message on social networks Thursday evening.

Instead, the Russians continue their massive attacks against Ukraine and their ferocious assaults along the front linehe denounced.

Very satisfied with his meeting with Mr. Putin on August 15, Donald Trump acknowledged on Thursday that he would not know more about the chances of peace than In the next two weeks.

After that, we may have to adopt a different approachhe estimated without more detail.

After meeting Mr. Putin in Alaska and then Mr. Zelensky on the White House on Monday, Donald Trump said she had to prepare a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian leaders. But the participation of the belligerents still seems far from being acquired.

If Vladimir Putin seems to have accepted the principle of this meeting, which he refused so far, neither date nor place have been announced, and Moscow stressed Wednesday that such an meeting should be prepared with great care.

Paris denounced a absence of will of Russia to end the war.

Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, said in front of a media group, including theAFP want to understand the architecture of safety guarantees within 7 to 10 days.

Ensuite, We should have a bilateral meeting in a week or twowished the Ukrainian leader, whose first meeting with his Russian counterpart would be the first meeting in six years.

Mr. Zelensky proposed Switzerland, Austria or Turkey for a possible meeting. On the other hand, he dismissed Hungary, tried too close to the Kremlin.

Diplomatic contacts have accelerated in recent weeks to find an outcome to the war caused by the Russian invasion in February 2022, but the positions of Moscow and kyiv remain diametrically opposed, in particular on the issue of occupied Ukrainian territories.

Security guarantees

Finding an agreement on security guarantees is also complex. Europeans and Americans have mentioned in recent months different possibilities ranging from guarantees similar to the famous article 5 fromTake to the deployment of a military quota in Ukraine.

kyiv considers that, even if an outcome is found in this war, Russia will still try to invade it in the future, hence the importance of these guarantees.

Moscow, which describes the expansion of theTake at its borders as one of the deep causes Having led to the conflict, for its part categorically rejects most of the scenarios envisaged.

The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, warned Thursday that any deployment of a European military quota in Ukraine would be unacceptable.

At the same time, Ukraine seeks to increase its armament production, a way of reducing its dependence using the allies.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that his country had successfully tested a new missile with a range of 3000 kilometers called Flamingo.

Moscow claims to take three villages

The Russian Defense Ministry said, in a statement released on Friday on Telegram, having captured the villages of Katerynivka, Volodymyrivka and Rusyn Yar in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, intensifying military pressure on the ground.

The Russian army has increased its territorial gains in recent months against less numerous and less well equipped Ukrainian forces.

During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Russian army launched a massive attack with 574 drones and 40 missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, a record number since mid-July.

These strikes left two dead, one in Kherson and another in Lviv, in the west of the country. They also largely destroyed an American company in the city of Moukatchevo, in western Ukraine, said Zelensly.

The Russians knew exactly where they had launched the missiles. We believe that it was a deliberate strike specifically on a property belonging to Americans.

The attack on Moukatchevo was 23 injured, according to a new assessment of local authorities.