No meeting between Putin and Zelensky until agenda agreed, says Russia's Lavrov

Ukraine says Moscow is doing ‘everything’ to stop summit

- DANIEL KEANE

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said there are no immediate plans for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, despite Donald Trump’s suggestion that a summit could take place in the coming weeks.

In an interview with NBC yesterday, Mr Lavrov said that the agenda for a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders was “not ready at all”.

His comments came just a week after Mr Trump met face-to-face with Putin in Alaska for the first time in seven years for talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion. After the summit, Mr Trump said that he would help set up a meeting between Mr Zelensky and Putin, which would be followed by a trilateral summit that would include him.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump suggested a meeting between the two leaders could be arranged easily as they “may be getting along a little bit better than I thought”.

But Mr Lavrov appeared to cast doubt on whether such a summit could take place, saying: “Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all.”