Russia on Friday dismissed the possibility of an immediate meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as diplomatic tensions rose with the Ukrainian president and U.S. mediation efforts faltered.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "no meeting" between Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy was planned, as NATO chief Mark Rutte visited Kyiv, largely to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump raised expectations for a swift summit between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents by saying they had both agreed to meet after Zelenskyy, Rutte and Kyiv's European allies visited the White House on Monday.
But on Friday, Lavrov dashed hopes for direct Putin-Zelenskyy talks to resolve the conflict, now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president's legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin's maximalist claims.
"There is no meeting planned," Lavrov said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker."
