JD Vance said Russia was not stringing along President Trump and insisted it had made “significant concessions” that made peace possible in Ukraine.
The US vice-president said sanctions remained on the table but the Russians accepted the principle of security guarantees and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and that they would not get a puppet regime in Kyiv as part of a settlement.
However, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, again called President Zelensky an illegitimate leader and said that President Putin was prepared to meet only if Zelensky was recognised as “de facto head of the regime” in Kyiv. Lavrov appeared to suggest that Putin could not finalise a settlement with Zelensky, saying “the issue of who is going to sign the deal on the Ukrainian side is a very serious issue”.
He told NBC News: “We would need a very clear understanding by everybody that the person who is signing is legitimate and, according to the Ukrainian constitution, Mr Zelensky is not at the moment.”
Sergey Lavrov
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Lavrov added that Putin was ready to meet, “provided this meeting is really going to decide something”, but said “to meet for Zelensky to have another opportunity to be on stage is not what we believe is useful”.
A meeting has yet to be scheduled. Lavrov said that Russia was “ready to continue the negotiations … which started in Istanbul”, which take place between lower-level negotiators.
The main tangible result of the talks are prisoner exchanges, including a recent swap of 146 prisoners of war after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Ministry of Defence said. The former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaenko and the journalist Dmytro Khylyuk, who was taken prisoner three years ago, are said to be among those released from Russian captivity.
Trump met President Zelensky at the White House last Monday
ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES
The peace process has slowed after last week’s frenetic diplomacy. Trump said on Friday that he would judge in two weeks whether progress was being made towards peace, a time frame he also suggested at the end of May.
It was revealed on Saturday that the Pentagon has been blocking Ukraine from firing long-range missiles into Russia since the spring, after this was enabled by the Biden administration in November in an effort to get Putin to engage seriously in negotiations.
An unannounced US Defence Department approval procedure prevents Ukraine from launching any US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems, or Atacms, against targets in Russia, officials told The Wall Street Journal. Ukraine has asked the Trump administration for permission to use Atacms against Russia at least once but the request was rejected, officials said.
Asked if the Russians were stringing Trump along, Vance told NBC News: “No, not at all. I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict.
“They’ve actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands. They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war. I didn’t say they conceded on everything but what they have conceded is the recognition that Ukraine will have territorial integrity after the war. They’ve recognised that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv … Have they made every concession? Of course they haven’t … but we’re making progress.”
Asked if he was “enraged” by a Russian missile strike in western Ukraine on Thursday that hit an electronics factory owned by a US-based company, Vance added: “I don’t like it but this is a war and this is why we want to stop the killing. The Russians have done a lot of things that we don’t like. A lot of civilians have died. We’ve condemned that stuff from the get-go and, frankly, President Trump has done more to apply pressure and to apply economic leverage to the Russians, certainly, than Joe Biden did for three and a half years, when he did nothing but talk, did nothing to bring the killing to a stop. So you asked me what I’m enraged by? What I’m enraged by is the continuation of the war.”
Vance concluded: “We’re going to eventually be successful, or we’ll hit a brick wall, and if we hit a brick wall, then we’re going to continue this process of negotiation, of applying leverage. This is the energetic diplomacy that’s going to bring this war to a close.”
King’s call for ‘a just peace’
Zelensky revealed that the King had sent a message of support to Ukraine to mark the country’s independence day on Sunday, calling for a “just and lasting peace” to end the war.
The King said: “I keep feeling the greatest and deepest admiration for the unbreakable courage and spirit of the Ukrainian people. I remain hopeful that our countries will be able to further work closely together to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
The British military will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers until at least the end of next year, with an extension to Operation Interflex, the Ministry of Defence said. More than 50,000 Ukrainian troops have been trained in the UK.
The King with Zelensky at Windsor Castle in June
JONATHAN BRADY/PA
Zelensky responded: “His Majesty’s kind words are a true inspiration for our people during the difficult time of war. We appreciate the United Kingdom’s leadership in supporting Ukraine and our just cause: to defend freedom from tyranny and ensure a lasting peace in Ukraine and throughout Europe.”
• Ignore the bluster. Putin may be open to a Ukraine deal
In a defiant independence day message marking 34 years since Ukraine left the Soviet Union, Zelensky said: “This Ukraine will never again in history be forced into the shame that the Russians call a ‘compromise’ … What our future will be is up to us alone and the world knows it.”
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, joins President Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, at a wreath-laying ceremony in Kyiv on Sunday
SEAN KILPATRICK/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP)
Fighting continues to rage amid a grinding Russian advance in Donetsk, where both sides have claimed recent victories.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, wrote on Facebook that Ukrainian troops had “successfully counterattacked and cleared villages in the Donetsk region — Mykhailivka, Zelenyi Hai, Volodymyrivka — from the enemy.”
Ukrainian forces wait out the threat of drone strikes on their way back from the besieged city of Pokrovsk
VIACHESLAV RATYNSKYI FOR THE TIMES
On Saturday, Moscow’s defence ministry claimed on Telegram that Russian forces had captured the villages of Sredneye and Kleban-Byk. This would mark an advance towards the strategically key and fortified town of Kostiantynivka on the road to Kramatorsk, which hosts a large Ukrainian logistics base. The village of Filia in the Dnipropetrovsk region was also claimed to have been captured, according to the defence ministry on Sunday.
Russia and Ukraine swapped tit-for-tat drone barrages overnight on Saturday, causing nine injuries and one death in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region and hitting Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant as well as a fuel terminal in its Baltic port of Ust-Luga. said. Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaenko and journalist Dmytro Khylyuk, who was taken prisoner three years ago, were reportedly among those released from Russian captivity.