Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that it is clear that at Friday’s US-Russian summit in Alaska the US President Donald Trump and his team sincerely wanted to achieve a long-term and sustainable peace in Ukraine. At the same time, he stressed that the atmosphere at the Putin-Trump meeting was “very good.”
“It was clear that the head of the United States and his team, first of all, sincerely want to achieve an outcome that is long-term, sustainable, reliable,” Lavrov told Rossiya 24 television station.
At the same time, he compared what he said was a constructive US position with that of Europe, some of whose leaders took part yesterday, Monday, in an extraordinary summit at the White House with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine.
Lavrov said that “the Europeans have consistently insisted only on a ceasefire and that after that they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.”
“Russia does not rule out any format for discussing the peace process in Ukraine,” he added at another point.
Although the meeting is not yet “booked”, discussions have begun about the city that could host it.
First to take a stand was French President Emanuel Macron, who put Geneva on the table.
According to his reasoning, the meeting of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine should take place on “neutral territory” and therefore “in Switzerland… or some other country”. “I, however, support Geneva,” the French president said.
Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, expressed the same view, saying “Geneva could be the best place. Italy is in favour of this solution.”
According to Sky News, the Geneva solution is also preferred by the Russians.
However Trump and Zelensky appear to be in favour of holding the meeting in Rome.
Sky News reports, in fact, that US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and US Vice President, J.D. Vance, have come out in favor of Rome.
European diplomats quoted by the British media said “we are still assessing several locations.”
Earlier, however, Reuters reported that the Putin-Zelensky one-on-one could take place in Hungary, citing a U.S. official.
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