Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted a productive meeting with US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine with his European counterparts on Monday. A State Department spokesperson said Rubio held talks with British counterpart David Lammy, Ukrainian Andriy Sybiha, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, among others. Zelensky noted that he and Kellogg discussed applying pressure on Russia to compel it to hold “real talks” to end the war ongoing for over three years. Zelensky wrote on Telegram: “We had a good meeting with US Presidential Special Envoy Keith Kellogg.” He added: “We discussed how to influence Russia and force it to conduct serious talks to end this war… We are ready to hold talks at the leaders’ level.

This is essential to resolve key issues.” Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Western countries on Sunday of seeking to “disrupt” negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on Russian public TV: “All they do is look for excuses to disrupt the negotiations,” condemning Zelensky’s stance who “is stubborn, sets conditions, and demands an immediate meeting at any cost” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lavrov accused Ukrainian authorities of “seeking to disrupt a process established by Presidents Putin and Trump that yielded very good results,” adding: “We hope to thwart these attempts.”