Star Metro - Russia rejects Zelensky meeting as diplomatic tension simmers

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "no meeting" between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky was planned, as NATO chief Mark Rutte visited Kyiv, largely to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump raised expectations for a swift summit between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents by saying they had both agreed to meet after Zelensky, Rutte and Kyiv's European allies visited the White House on Monday.

But on Friday, Lavrov dashed hopes for direct Putin-Zelensky talks to resolve the conflict, now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president's legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin's maximalist claims.

"There is no meeting planned," Lavrov said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker".

Lavrov told the US broadcaster Putin was "ready to meet Zelensky" as soon as an agenda was prepared, adding that the agenda was "not ready at all".

Speaking alongside Rutte in Kyiv, Zelensky said Ukraine had "no agreements with the Russians", saying Ukraine had agreed only with Trump on how the diplomatic direction could proceed.

On Thursday, he had accused Russia of "trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting", adding that Moscow wanted to continue the offensive.

- 'A utopia' -

The question of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine has been front and centre during the latest US-led diplomatic push to broker a peace deal to end the conflict.

Trump earlier said Russia had agreed to some Western security guarantees for Kyiv.

But Moscow later cast doubt on any such arrangement, by saying discussing them without Russia was "a utopia, a road to nowhere".

"When Russia raises the issue of security guarantees, I honestly do not yet know who is threatening them," said Zelensky, who wants foreign troops in Ukraine to deter Russian attacks in the future.

The Kremlin has long said it would never accept that, citing Ukraine's NATO ambition as one of the pretexts for its assault.

"There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything," Lavrov told NBC.

On a visit to Kyiv, during which an air raid alert sounded across the city, Rutte said security guarantees were needed to ensure "Russia will uphold any deal and will never ever again attempt to take one square kilometre of Ukraine".

Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.

Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

P.Graham--SMC