Prospects of a long-anticipated summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have waned, after US President Donald Trump compared the task of bringing the two leaders together to “mixing oil and vinegar.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump acknowledged the difficulty of arranging a face-to-face meeting, though he insisted his administration was still exploring possibilities. “We’re going to see if Putin and Zelenskyy will be working together, you know, that’s like oil and vinegar, a little bit. They don’t get along too well for obvious reasons, but we’ll see,” Trump said.
Pressed on whether he might personally attend such a meeting, Trump replied, “And then we’ll see whether or not I would have to be there. I would rather not. I would rather have them have a meeting and see how they can do. But in the meantime, they continue to fight and they continue to kill people, which is very stupid because they’re losing 7000 people.”
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Earlier this week, Trump had announced plans to bring the two leaders together while consulting European allies in Washington, a move later confirmed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. However, Moscow has dismissed expectations of imminent progress.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that “no meeting” was currently planned. While reiterating that Putin was “ready to meet Zelensky as soon as an agenda was prepared,” Lavrov insisted that such an agenda was “not ready at all.” He also cast doubt on the prospects of meaningful dialogue by questioning Zelenskyy’s legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin’s maximalist demands.
For his part, Zelenskyy accused Moscow of attempting to prolong the war, now entering its fourth year, by obstructing dialogue and rejecting realistic conditions for negotiations.
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