Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a three-way peace summit with US President, Donald Trump and Russian President, Vladimir Putin in a bold new push to bring Russia’s three-year invasion to a halt.
This comes after the Kremlin flatly refused earlier calls for direct talks.
The offer also comes as tensions between Moscow and Washington spiral once again, with Trump said to be growing increasingly exasperated at both Zelenskyy and Putin failing to broker a peace deal.
“If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don’t mind. I am ready for any format.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The Ukrainian leader also urged Washington to hit Moscow with a package of hard-hitting sanctions.
Zelenskyy appealed directly to Washington for a new wave of crippling sanctions aimed at Russia’s energy and banking sectors – the lifeblood of the Kremlin’s war machine.
“We are waiting for sanctions from the United States of America. Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him – energy and the banking system. Will the US be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy’s push comes amid growing frustration in Kyiv over the lack of fresh US sanctions, especially after Russia rejected a coordinated call by Western nations for an immediate ceasefire earlier this month.
In a show of defiance, Ukraine launched one of its biggest-ever drone strikes on Russian territory just hours after Zelenskyy’s comments.
On the battlefield, the situation remains volatile. Zelenskyy has warned that Moscow is massing over 50,000 troops near the Sumy border region in Ukraine’s northeast – a worrying escalation as Russia captures more territory in their push to create what Putin has descried as a “buffer zone.”
Despite peace talks being dangled repeatedly, Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine has yet to receive a “memorandum” from Russia spelling out its conditions for a potential deal.
Kremlin Rebuffs Zelenskyy’s Call For Three-Way Meeting With Trump, Putin
Meanwhile, the Kremlin rebuffed the call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a three-way summit with US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Moscow said that any meeting involving Putin and Zelenskyy would happen only after “concrete agreements” had been struck between negotiators from each side.
The Russian President rejected calls to meet Zelenskyy in Turkey earlier in May.
Putin has repeatedly said he does not see Zelenskyy as a legitimate leader and called for him to be toppled.
Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out the peace process and of not wanting to halt its invasion.
Kyiv has yet to receive a promised “memorandum” from Russia on its demands for a peace deal that Putin said he would send to Ukraine. Peskov noted that work on the document was in its “final stages.”
Amid mounting frustration among Ukrainian allies at the slow progress, Peskov said, “There are a huge collection of nuances that need to be discussed.”
He also said that there was no decision on where the next round of talks between the two sides would take place, after Moscow rejected calls to stage them in the Vatican.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg told a news agency earlier that they would “probably” be in Geneva.
Trump, meanwhile, has expressed frustration at both men for not yet striking a deal to end the war.
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