KEY POINTS
- Russia says any Ukraine peace deal must address its security concerns.
- Lavrov insists a Zelensky–Putin summit must be “thoroughly prepared”.
- Trump pushes for peace deal after meeting Zelensky and speaking with Putin.
- China said it supports “all efforts” towards peace between Russia and Ukraine.
- Macron suggests Geneva as a possible venue for Putin-Zelensky summit; Switzerland offers to host.
- Zelensky says he is “ready” to meet Putin, calling White House talks a significant step.
PARIS, France: Russia said on Tuesday that any prospective peace deal on Ukraine must address its own security concerns and protect Russian-speaking communities in Ukraine, as Kyiv’s allies met to discuss possible peace talks, after suggestions that Volodymyr Zelensky could sit down with Vladimir Putin.
Hopes of a breakthrough rose when the Ukrainian president and European leaders met in Washington on Monday with US President Donald Trump, who said he had also spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart.
But Russia warned that any solution of the war in Ukraine must respect “Russia’s security interests”, with its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov adding that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly”.
Face-to-face talks between Zelensky and Putin would be their first since the war started in February 2022.
Lavrov told state TV channel Rossiya 24 that any deal to end the conflict must ensure the rights of “Russian-speaking people who live in Ukraine.”
His comments came as France and Britain were co-hosting a virtual meeting of about 30 of Kyiv’s allies known as the “coalition of the willing” to “keep them up to date on what was decided”, President Emmanuel Macron told French news channel LCI.
He added that work on setting the peace talks will start after that, hinting at Geneva as a possible location.
Macron also voiced wider European concern about Moscow’s territorial ambitions, after suggestions that Ukraine could be forced to concede parts of the embattled Donbas region still under its control.
Open to talks
Trump, who last week held talks with Putin in Alaska, wrote on his Truth Social network after Monday’s meetings that he called Putin to start planning peace talks with Zelensky.
A three-way summit with both leaders would then be held, Trump added.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was part of the European delegation, said Putin had agreed to the bilateral meeting within the next two weeks.
Zelensky said he was “ready” to meet Putin and on Tuesday hailed the Washington talks as a “truly significant step toward ending the war and ensuring the security of Ukraine and our people”.
In Moscow, where a Kremlin aide said that Putin was open to the “idea” of direct talks with Ukraine, Lavrov said the United States had now taken “a much deeper approach to resolving the crisis”.
Trump’s summit with Putin last Friday in Alaska failed to produce a ceasefire.
Zelensky rushed to the White House to meet with Trump after the US president increasingly pushed the Ukrainian leader to make concessions to Russia.
China ‘Supports’ Ukraine peace talks
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Tuesday that Beijing supports “all efforts” towards peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the only solution to the Ukraine crisis,” the spokeswoman said, adding: “We support all efforts that are conducive to peace.”
Mao Ning said that China’s position on the Ukraine crisis has been consistent and clear. China is not the creator of the crisis, nor is China a party to it. However, from the very first day of the crisis, China has upheld an objective and fair stance, firmly advocating peace talks and negotiations.
China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Ukraine conflict, the spokesperson said.
In response to a question about Zelensky telling reporters outside the White House on Monday that he is ready to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin, and about Trump’s phone call with Putin in which he said he would hold a trilateral summit with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated that China has always believed dialogue and negotiation are the only viable ways to resolve the Ukraine crisis and that China supports all efforts conducive to peace.
Venue for Putin-Zelensky summit
French President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of a peace summit between Putin and Zelensky being held in Europe, in “a neutral country, maybe Switzerland”.
“I’m pushing for Geneva,” he said in an interview aired earlier Tuesday on French news channel LCI.
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told a press conference on Tuesday that Switzerland would grant Putin immunity if he came to the country for talks on peace in Ukraine.
Cassis said that under certain circumstances, he would be allowed to set foot in Switzerland.
Cassis said Switzerland was fully prepared to host such a meeting and highlighted the militarily-neutral country’s long expertise in the field.
Cassis said he had “constantly reiterated this willingness” to organise such meetings during his contacts with his Russian counterpart Lavrov over recent months.
Swiss authorities may authorise exemptions from travel restrictions, “notably if the person is travelling to participate in an international conference,” a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman told AFP at the time.
Putin last visited Geneva for his June 2021 summit with then-President Joe Biden.
The most recent bilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul.
Security guarantees
Trump, meanwhile, said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and that Putin had agreed to them, despite ruling out Kyiv’s long-held dream of joining the NATO alliance.
The guarantees “would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America”, he said.
The Financial Times said Ukraine had undertaken to buy $100 billion of US weapons financed by Europe in return for US guarantees for its security.
Zelensky later spoke to reporters about a $90-billion package and said Ukraine and its allies would formalise the terms of the security guarantees within 10 days.
The presence of the European leaders, however, also underscored continuing nervousness about whether Trump will pivot towards Putin as he has on a number of occasions.
Trump had pushed Ukraine ahead of the meeting to give up Crimea and abandon its goal of joining NATO — both key demands made by Putin.
Russia returns bodies of Ukrainian troops
Kyiv said Tuesday that Russia had returned the bodies of one thousand killed Ukrainian soldiers, as part of previous agreements brokered between the two warring countries.
The government agency coordinating the repatriation announced on social media that it would carry out tests to identify the remains delivered from eastern Ukraine and the Kursk region of Russia.
