Zelenskyy urges quick progress on Trump security guarantees before Putin summit

Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine said that it expects rapid progress on safety guarantees that its allies could provide in a peace agreement with Russia, but that one of the possible summit sites pursued by the United States would be “difficult”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged rapid progress while military officials in the United States and Europe have developed plans proposed before negotiations.

After Russia launched one of its greatest air attacks of the year overnight, Zelenskyy said Thursday that there was “still no Moscow signal that they really intended to engage in substantial negotiations and end this war”.

Later, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, reiterated the long -standing requests from his government that Ukraine be demilitarized and stop trying to be allied with the West.

“Ukraine would remain neutral, non -nuclear and not aligned,” said Lavrov at a press conference. He suggested that a meeting of Putin-Zelenskyy depended on responding to these requests in advance and accused Kyiv and his allies of undermining Trump’s efforts to conclude a peace agreement.

“The objectives pursued by current Ukrainian leadership – objectives that are undoubtedly powered by Western sponsors of the kyiv regime – are directed against the efforts made by President Trump,” he said.

Later Thursday, the US military announced that the defense leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Ukraine, the United States and the Supreme Commander of the Allies Europe, had met in Washington earlier this week to develop “military options to support negotiations”.

“These options will be presented to the respective national security advisers of each country for an appropriate consideration in current diplomatic efforts,” American staff spokesman Joseph Holstead said in a statement.

Trump has promised European leaders that the United States would help provide security guarantees in any regulation with Russia, a key concern for kyiv. He has since said that this would not include American troops on the ground, but could involve air support.

Once Kyiv has more clarity on the protections that his allies are ready to offer, said Zelenskyy, he would then be ready to meet the Vladimir Putin of Russia. And if Putin was not ready to meet, he said that he “would like to see a strong reaction from the United States”.

Where these discussions could be placed, has become a possible stumbling block.

The White House has advanced with arrangements despite certain public reluctance of the Kremlin. The Hungarian capital Budapest and the Swiss city of Geneva were among the sites discussed, said a senior administration official at NBC News, while Washington sought to obtain a place and a date.

But Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Budapest would be a “difficult” place for his first direct talks with his Russian counterpart since the Kremlin launched its large -scale invasion.

The meeting should take place in a neutral European country, he said, designating the close ties of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with the Kremlin and the lack of support for kyiv.

“Switzerland, Austria – we agree,” Zelenskyy told journalists, adding that Ukraine would also accept Turkey.

On Wednesday, Russia reported that it was not in a hurry that Putin and Zelenskyy sit together, Lavrov saying “talks must be prepared with great care.”

Adding to this apparent emergency lack in talks, Russia launched an immense air bombardment overnight, which included nearly 600 drones and 40 missiles, the Ukraine air force said early Thursday.

The strikes have reached the bottom of Ukraine, hitting an American company in the western region of Zakarpattia, said Zelenskyy, and injured at least 15 employees. At least one person was killed and two others were injured in Lviv because dozens of residential buildings were destroyed, governor Maksym Kozytskyy wrote on Telegram.

“The Russians led this attack as if nothing had changed, as if there were no global effort to arrest this war,” said Zelenskyy on X.

“It requires an answer.”

Dyna Mayer reported kyiv, and Mithil Aggarwal reported to Hong Kong.