Before meeting, Kremlin insists: There are still no conditions for “peace”

“ Dand now, there are no conditions for progress towards peace negotiations,” said President Dmitri Peskov, during the daily press conference since Moscow, shortly before the start of the meeting between Lavrov and Rubio in New York, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to Peskov, “in reality, the militarisation of Ukraine continues,” European countries “try to raise more and more money to buy weapons” and “the Kyiv regime continues its terrorist activity.”.

The United States has expressed its desire to resume soon the tripartite negotiations, frozen since February, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his wish on Tuesday to end the conflict with Russia before winter, claiming to have the help of American President Donald Trump.

“ I hope we end this war and President Trump will help us to end this war. I think we need to do this, if possible, before winter,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at the meeting he held on the eve with Trump at the UN headquarters in New York, where the general debate of the 81st UN General Assembly takes place.

After Trump stated on Tuesday, from the assembly gallery, that the war will end sooner than many think, Zelensky expressed himself “willing” to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, having Peskov today commented that such a meeting would be “a waste of time”, unless it was to sign a peace treaty.

However, the spokesperson for the Kremlin reiterated that Zelensky can always travel to Moscow if he wants to meet with Putin, but to do so, he must first accept Russian conditions, i.e. withdraw his troops from the Donbass.