Russian official says Trump, Putin may meet next week; not aware of any Zelenskiy meeting
"As far as I heard, there are a number of locations, but they agreed to something that they don't want to disclose. The timeline is, I think, next week, but that's again judging from what presidents said themselves," Polyanskiy told reporters about the Putin-Trump meeting.
"I haven't heard about any meeting planned with President Zelenskiy, but I am not in the loop," he added.
There has been no summit of U.S. and Russian leaders since Putin and former President Joe Biden met in Geneva in June 2021.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what it called threats to its security. Kyiv and its Western allies cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab.
Trump had vowed to end Russia's war in Ukraine, but almost seven months into his second term, it remains an unfulfilled promise.
In his comments to reporters, Polyanskiy also condemned any Israeli plan for a takeover of the Gaza Strip.
"We think that this is a very bad step in an absolutely wrong direction and we condemn this kind of actions," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, despite intensifying global criticism of Israel's devastating almost two-year-old assault on the Palestinian enclave that has caused a hunger crisis, opens new tab and killed tens of thousands.
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US vice-president JD Vance and his family fly to the UK for their summer holiday today, starting with a trip to see David Lammy at Chevening, the Foreign Secretary's grace-and-favour pile in Kent. The visit, expected to last three nights, promises to be a classic of the political odd-couple genre. We are told that Vance and Lammy have struck up an unlikely friendship rooted in their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith. When Vance hosted Lammy and his wife, Nicola, earlier this year, they took mass together. It has been reported that they will pray together this time, too – one up on those other great transatlantic pals, George W Bush and Tony Blair, for whom joint communion was a step too far. From the outside, however, Lammy and Vance could hardly be more different. The latter is Trump's America-first rottweiler, whose most memorable trip to Europe so far involved him berating leaders for their liberal attitude towards immigration. And Lammy is the urbane member for Tottenham who was one of the MPs who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader. Lammy has tried to play nice with the vice-president, saying Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy, reminded him of his own childhood and 'reduced me to tears'. The Foreign Secretary has even spoken of having an 'epiphany' while sharing drinks with the vice-president, during which he realised the pair were 'not just working-class politicians, but people with dysfunctional childhoods'. But as the weekend unfolds, Lammy still might have to explain what precisely he meant in 2018 when he tweeted that Donald Trump was 'a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath'. Other subjects our Foreign Secretary might want to steer clear of: Ukraine, Nato, China, Israel, the climate, trans rights, immigration or the EU. Vance, for his part, might opt against bringing up (again) Britain's lack of freedom of speech, incipient Islamism and lacklustre defence spending. Still, he is apparently quite the Anglophile. James Orr, the Cambridge academic who is a good friend of the vice-president's, has said Vance criticises our leadership not because he hates us but because he loves us. He just has a funny way of showing it. Moreover, as a generally polite and articulate man, except in the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky, Vance will be keen to avoid awkwardness as a guest. Contrary to usual dinner party advice, you can imagine both men doing all they can to desperately haul the conversation back to religion. Alastair Campbell reportedly said: 'We don't do God.' Vance and Lammy may find it's all they can do. Sit-downs aside, Kent, with its mix of affluence and deprivation, Oast Houses and oysters, should appeal to Vance. The vice-president grew up between Iowa and Appalachian Kentucky, the latter a wild and backwards place, full of violence and inbreeding. Where better to pick up on those themes than the Isle of Sheppey, a place with three prisons but no Waitrose? In the car on the way over, Lammy can entertain the vice-president by explaining the differences between Tonbridge and Royal Tunbridge Wells. That is if his passenger isn't intent on a deep and meaningful conversation about the fact the foreign secretary once called his boss 'deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic' and 'no friend of Britain'. From Sheppey it is a short hop to Margate, a town that proves economic regeneration is possible in the least promising of circumstances. All it takes is Tracey Emin, a few good restaurants and the determination of the untold thousands of north London immigrant hipsters who have arrived in recent years, bringing with them the small-plate and natural-wine customs of their Hackney homeland. Lammy may even recognise some émigrés from his Tottenham constituency. After a meal at Sargasso, Vance would surely dream of a similar transformation in Appalachia. Expect a special US visa scheme for east Londoners to follow in short order. They already have the lumberjack shirts. The pair could then pop around to Folkestone, where renewal has depended on a billionaire, Roger de Haan, who is determined to build hundreds of luxury flats. Perhaps Vance could pick up some pointers, on the off-chance he knows anyone else fond of real estate deals. On a short walk down the coast they could see the Battle of Britain Memorial. It would be an opportunity for Lammy to gently remind the vice-president that occasionally, British soldiers have not only died alongside Americans in defence of liberty, but died while America neglected to get involved. Though Vance would have his turn further down the coast again, as he could point out where Julius Caesar landed, a chilling warning to nations that do not maintain sufficient military spending. By this point both men will no doubt be tired from their excursions and Lammy will have run out of excuses not to reply to Keir Starmer's WhatsApps asking for a 'quick update' on 'how it's all going'. Starmer went to great lengths to secure a trade deal with Trump earlier this year, and will be paying close attention to this geopolitical family holiday, keen to ensure that whatever improbable rapport his foreign secretary has built with Vance pays dividends. Certainly, at the end of the weekend, both men will have learnt valuable lessons. If nothing else, Lammy will have met some ordinary British voters. He might also have learnt a thing or two about how to describe the American president when one has designs on high office oneself.
