Vance claims Russia ‘refused’ meetings with Trump
The Russian side has refused trilateral meetings with US President Donald Trump and representatives from Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance claimed in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
Trump has increasingly expressed impatience with the pace of Ukraine peace talks. The Kremlin says Kiev has demonstrated that it is not interested in peace by sticking to megaphone diplomacy and ignoring Russian settlement proposals.
“Unfortunately, what we have seen over the last couple weeks, the Russians have refused to sit down with any bilateral meetings with the Ukrainians,” Vance told Fox News.
“They have refused to sit down with any trilateral meetings, where the president or some other member of the administration could sit down with the Russians and the Ukrainians,” he added.
According to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet Trump if the US leader chooses to take up the invitation and visit Moscow. The offer was extended shortly after their summit in Alaska in August.
“This invitation still stands,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Sunday. “Putin is ready and will be glad to meet President Trump. It will then all depend on Trump’s decision.”
However, a meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky would first require the peace talks to make some headway, Moscow has argued.
An “unprepared” meeting with Zelensky would amount to “a PR-stunt doomed to failure,” Peskov said on Wednesday.
Moscow has maintained that it is ready and willing to settle the Ukraine conflict via diplomatic means.
