• Latest
  • Trending
  • All

Russia is trying to stop meeting on peace and prolong war, Zelensky says

August 23, 2025

Struggling Pizza Hut chain to be sold for $2.7bn

June 16, 2026

Money Box – Renting in Retirement and Wildlife Bank Notes

June 16, 2026

Three reasons ships are not going through the Strait of Hormuz yet

June 16, 2026

Remote volunteers use CCTV to save red squirrels

June 16, 2026

How Prince George will follow in his father’s footsteps at Eton

June 16, 2026

Grammy Awards add Asian Pop and Latin song categories

June 16, 2026

Oil tanker seized in Scottish waters reappears with new identity

June 16, 2026

Vincent Tan: Cardiff City owner converts £42m of debt into equity

June 16, 2026

Burrows denies 'deals done' to block NI minimum criminal age rise

June 16, 2026

Australia to probe assault claims by Gaza flotilla activists against Israeli forces

June 16, 2026

Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites

June 16, 2026

Nigerian army frees widow of ex-general who died in captivity

June 16, 2026
News
  • Login
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Worklife
  • Travel
  • Reel
  • Future
  • More
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
No Result
View All Result

NEWS

3 °c
London
8 ° Wed
9 ° Thu
11 ° Fri
13 ° Sat
  • Home
  • Video
  • World
    • All
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • US & Canada

    Australia to probe assault claims by Gaza flotilla activists against Israeli forces

    Cuba tourism collapses as US pressure campaign bites

    Nigerian army frees widow of ex-general who died in captivity

    India temporarily bans Telegram to tackle fraud in key medical exam

    Russian artist and Putin critic shot dead in Poland

    Brazil woman dies after rope-jumping instructors fail to attach cord

    Iranian-Americans protest against Iran’s team outside opening round World Cup game

    Eight dead after US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes in California

    World Cup 2026: Nestory Irankunda – the refugee who quit Bayern to make Australia history

  • UK
    • All
    • England
    • N. Ireland
    • Politics
    • Scotland
    • Wales

    How Prince George will follow in his father’s footsteps at Eton

    Oil tanker seized in Scottish waters reappears with new identity

    Vincent Tan: Cardiff City owner converts £42m of debt into equity

    Burrows denies 'deals done' to block NI minimum criminal age rise

    Polls open on Thursday for the Makerfield by-election

    Alessio Dionisi: Watford appoint Italian as new head coach

    Reform pledges new tax on hiring foreign workers

    Gang guilty of organised crime in £4m cocaine and dirty money ring

    Pensioner suffocated neighbour and recorded his dying words, court told

  • Business
    • All
    • Companies
    • Connected World
    • Economy
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Global Trade
    • Technology of Business

    Struggling Pizza Hut chain to be sold for $2.7bn

    Money Box – Renting in Retirement and Wildlife Bank Notes

    What is Helium-3 and could we get it from the moon?

    Fox to buy Roku streaming firm in $22bn deal

    Why I sold my business to my staff

    Oil prices slide after Pakistan announces deal between US and Iran

    UK electric car sales target set to be weakened

    Why the US economy keeps defying the odds

    Teen plans to leave uni 'debt free' after making £35,000 selling vintage football shirts

  • Tech
  • Entertainment & Arts

    Meghan hits red carpet at Power of Women in Hollywood

    Margot Robbie unable to speak at Saltburn premiere

    Barbra Streisand: Siri can now pronounce my name

    Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel inspires cinema’s look

    Taylor Swift/ Travis Kelce romance reaches White House

    The Killers booed at Georgia concert after inviting Russian fan on stage

    Watch: Memorable moments from Parkinson's star-studded show

    Tom Jones: Neighbour surprised to find singer in flat below

    Black Country Folk Festival showcases local musicians

    Watch: Australians set new world record with Tina Turner dance

  • Science
  • Health
  • In Pictures
  • Reality Check
  • Have your say
  • More
    • Newsbeat
    • Long Reads

NEWS

No Result
View All Result
Home World Europe

Russia is trying to stop meeting on peace and prolong war, Zelensky says

August 23, 2025
in Europe
8 min read
240 12
0
491
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Katy Watson

BBC News in Kyiv

EPA/Shutterstock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, dressed in his signature black, gesticulates as he addresses a joint press conference in Kyiv. Behind him his the Ukrainian flag. EPA/Shutterstock

Ukraine’s leader said he was not afraid of any meetings, unlike Russia

Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky has accused Russia of “doing everything it can” to prevent a meeting with Vladimir Putin to try to end the war.

US President Donald Trump has sought to bring the two leaders together, but he said on Friday “that’s like oil and vinegar… they don’t get along too well”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin was ready to meet Ukraine’s leader “when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all”, accusing Zelensky of saying “no to everything”.

After an intensive week of diplomacy, in which Trump first met Putin in Alaska and then Zelensky with European leaders in Washington, the US president said the war was turning out to be the most difficult he had tried to stop.

Trump said after a call with the Russian leader on Monday that he had begun arrangements for a Putin-Zelensky summit that he would join afterwards.

Ukraine’s president has backed the move, but he has sought security guarantees from Western allies to prevent any future Russian attack in the event of a peace deal: “Ukraine, unlike Russia, is not afraid of any meetings between leaders.”

On a visit to Kyiv, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said Trump was aiming to “break the deadlock” and the alliance was working on robust security guarantees with the US and Europe to ensure Putin “will never ever try to attack Ukraine again”.

Speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine’s security guarantees to reflect Nato’s Article 5, which considers an attack on one member of the alliance an attack against all Nato members.

“This is the beginning of a big undertaking, and it is not easy, because guarantees consist of what our partners can give Ukraine, as well as what the Ukrainian army should be like, and where we can find opportunities for the army to maintain its strength,” Zelensky said.

Rutte said the alliance was working with Ukraine to define the guarantees, explaining that they would focus on making Ukraine’s military as strong as possible and involve Western security commitments. It was “too early to exactly say what will be the outcome”, he added.

Security guarantees have been agreed in the past, but not respected. The Nato secretary general insisted lessons had been learned from previous agreements such as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for “assurances” from Russia, the US and the UK about its future security.

Asked by the BBC what he would say to Ukrainians who have little faith anything will come from these latest diplomatic efforts, Zelensky said: “Maybe I’m showboating, but Washington felt like a success.

“Why? Because yes, Ukraine needs security guarantees. But without the US, Europe will not give us everything it can.

“I don’t know how this will end but this is much better than it was a week or two ago.

“We saw unity in Washington. It’s still political, but it’s just the first step of everyone working on security guarantees.”

Russia’s foreign minister appeared to dent hopes of any potential summit, telling NBC News that “there is no meeting planned”.

Sergei Lavrov said Russia had agreed to show flexibility on a number of issues raised by Trump at the US-Russia summit in Alaska last week.

Watch: “Russia hasn’t made one single concession”, Kaja Kallas says

He went on to accuse Ukraine of not showing the same flexibility in subsequent talks in Washington, blaming Ukraine for hindering progress toward a peace deal.

Lavrov said it was “very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted”.

He said this included no Nato membership for Ukraine and discussions of territorial issues: “Zelensky said no to everything,” Lavrov said.

He was speaking after EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the BBC that Putin was seeking territorial concessions from Ukraine that were a “trap that Putin wants us to walk into”.

“We are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession and they are the ones who are the aggressor here,” Kallas said.

Later on Friday, Putin said there was “light at the end of the tunnel” for Russia-US relations, referring to last week’s meeting with Trump in Alaska which he referred to as “very good, meaningful and frank”.

The Russian leader said Trump’s “leadership qualities” would help restore relations from recent lows.

He did not mention Ukraine or a meeting with Zelensky.

Despite latest efforts to broker a peace deal, Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine in weeks on Thursday, launching 574 drone and 40 missiles in one night.

Telegram/Madyar Black and white image of an explosion at an oil pumping stationTelegram/Madyar

A Ukrainian commander shared footage of the attack on a Russian oil pumping station

Facebook What appears to be a handwritten missive in black marker to the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban from Donald Trump reads "Viktor - I do not like hearing this - I am very angry about it! Tell Slovakia. You are my great friend - Donald."Facebook

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone blew up an oil pumping station in the Russian region of Bryansk, halting oil deliveries along the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia – the third attack on the pipeline in nine days.

Hungary and Slovakia are largely dependent on the Druzbha pipeline for their oil supplies, and Budapest says it could take at least five days before operations resume. The two EU member states have complained to the European Commission.

The European Union sought to cut Russia’s energy supplies after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and aims to phase out Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote to President Trump to complain about the attack on the pipeline, and his officials posted Trump’s handwritten response.

“Viktor – I do not like hearing this – I am very angry about it,” he wrote.

“Tell Slovakia. You are my great friend.”



Source link

Related Posts

Russian artist and Putin critic shot dead in Poland

June 16, 2026
0

Robert Kuzovkov, who used the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, has been known for his caricatures of politicians including Vladimir Putin....

Norwegian crown princess's son found guilty of two counts of rape

June 15, 2026
0

Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette Marit, has been found guilty of two counts...

Royal Marines board Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in English Channel

June 14, 2026
0

Marines were joined by National Crime Agency officers in the six-hour long operation in the early hours of Sunday....

  • Lee McGregor: Scot seeks world title in 2025 & Nathaniel Collins bout

    677 shares
    Share 271 Tweet 169
  • Belgian footballer arrested in cocaine investigation

    533 shares
    Share 213 Tweet 133
  • Next to raise prices to help pay for rising wage costs

    531 shares
    Share 212 Tweet 133
  • South Wales Police officers injured, one arrested

    525 shares
    Share 210 Tweet 131
  • Charities to get £15m fund to save surplus farm food

    516 shares
    Share 206 Tweet 129
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

Lee McGregor: Scot seeks world title in 2025 & Nathaniel Collins bout

January 16, 2025

Belgian footballer arrested in cocaine investigation

January 27, 2025

Next to raise prices to help pay for rising wage costs

January 7, 2025

World Cup 2022: TikTok brings football fever to millions of fans

0

UK economy will get worse before it gets better, warns chancellor

0

One of Central America’s most active volcanoes erupts again

0

Struggling Pizza Hut chain to be sold for $2.7bn

June 16, 2026

Money Box – Renting in Retirement and Wildlife Bank Notes

June 16, 2026

Three reasons ships are not going through the Strait of Hormuz yet

June 16, 2026

Categories

Companies

Struggling Pizza Hut chain to be sold for $2.7bn

June 16, 2026
0

The decision comes after a prolonged period of difficulty for the chain, which has faced increasing competition from a...

Read more

Money Box – Renting in Retirement and Wildlife Bank Notes

June 16, 2026
News

© 2023 GODJ - NEWS CORP - news.godj.com.

Explore NEWS.GODJ.COM

  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Worklife
  • Travel
  • Reel
  • Future
  • More

Follow Us

  • Home Main
  • Video
  • World
  • Top News
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Tech
  • UK
  • In Pictures
  • Health
  • Reality Check
  • Science
  • Entertainment & Arts
  • Login

© 2023 GODJ - NEWS CORP - news.godj.com.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.