Russian Minister Puts Sour Note on Prospects for Summit

Momentum toward a peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war appears to have slowed to a crawl. Russia's foreign minister put a decidedly sour note on the prospects of a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky happening anytime soon:

• "Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda is ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all," Sergey Lavrov told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in remarks released Friday by NBC News. "There is no meeting planned."

• Referring to Trump's own meeting with Zelensky, Lavrov said "it was very clear to everybody that there are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything."
• His comments were "the Kremlin's most direct declaration yet that a summit the White House had suggested was imminent was nowhere close to materializing," writes Anton Troianovski in the New York Times.
• On Thursday, in separate comments, Lavrov appeared to question the very "legitimacy" of Zelensky's presidency, per the Hill. He said he hoped that when the time came to sign deals, "the issue of the legitimacy of the person who will sign these agreements with the Ukrainian side will be resolved."
• Zelensky, for his part, has reiterated that he's ready to meet Putin any time. He suggested Thursday that Moscow was trying to "wiggle out" of a summit as it continues to bombard Ukraine.