Trump dismisses Zelensky’s play for Ukraine peace talks meeting: LIVE UPDATES

Trump dismisses Zelensky’s play for Ukraine peace talks meeting: LIVE UPDATES

RT

US President Donald Trump has rejected Ukrainian overtures to meet this week, following two days of Western European scrambling for a seat at the Ukraine peace talks table. Only when a peace deal on the conflict is “in its final stages” will Trump grant Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky the audience he and his backers attempted to leverage through what Moscow has described as “megaphone diplomacy.”

The leaking on Tuesday by Washington’s spies of phone conversations between Russian officials has also brought a warning from a senior Kremlin aide of possible in-fighting in the US that could undermine any progress.

Trump has, however, directed envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the emerging Ukraine peace plan, which the US president said has been “fine-tuned” with input from both sides, following four days of surprise and division in Western Europe.

Blindsided by the emergence of the US plan, Kiev’s European backers have since emphasized a maximalist position, outright rejecting territorial concessions as part of a peace deal, which is a red line for Moscow. Following Ukraine-US talks in Geneva, Kiev claimed Zelensky was ready to meet Trump before Thanksgiving to “sign a deal,” an offer dismissed by the US president, much to the disappointment of Zelensky’s key adviser.

Moscow’s diplomats, not having received any official documents from any party to the talks, have been understandably tight-lipped.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the EU and UK on Tuesday of attempting to undermine Trump’s peace efforts and distort the plan “for their own agenda.” Moscow remains, however, ready to discuss clauses in the American proposals with Washington, he stressed.

As it stands, the respective sides are fundamentally as far apart as ever, despite the overtures being made to Washington by Kiev, and the megaphone diplomacy coming from Brussels. 

27 November 2025

01:06 GMT

EU politicians and media outlets are working to undermine negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, reacting to debates over competing peace proposals and leaks.

When “things are not going according to plan,” some Western officials “create noise to drown out” useful ideas for a peace settlement, Zakharova told Sputnik radio.

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