Alaska Summit: Foreign Minister Lavrov Says Russia’s Position on Ukraine ‘Clear’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has clarified that Russia’s position on the war in Ukraine is “clear and unambiguous.” He noted that Russian views would be presented during Friday’s summit between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Lavrov made the comments after arriving in Alaska for talks aimed at potentially ending the three-year conflict in Ukraine. Speaking to Russian state TV, he said Moscow would not make any guesses about the outcome of the meeting. “We never make any predictions ahead of time,” he added. Notably, Lavrov appeared to be wearing a shirt with “USSR” written on it in Cyrillic letters.

Lavrov Refused to Provide Addtional Details

Although Lavrov insisted that Russia’s stance is clear, he did not provide details. “…our position is clear and unambiguous. We will present it,” he said.

The Alaska summit on Friday is the first-ever meeting between the US and Russian presidents since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. While Donald Trump has suggested the possibility of a “land swap” deal between Kyiv and Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not invited to the talks, has firmly rejected any such plan.

Still, Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine was “counting on the US President” to persuade Russia to end the war.

Donald Trump is Unsure of Summit’s Results

Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he would quickly know whether the meeting would be productive. “We’re gonna find out where everybody stands. And I’ll know within the first two minutes, three minutes, four minutes or five minutes… whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad one,” he said. “If it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’re going to end up getting peace in the pretty near future,” CNN quoted him as saying.

Trump also repeated his long-standing claim that Putin would not have started the invasion if he had been President in 2022. “The war should have never happened,” he said. “If I weren’t President, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine. But I am President, and he’s not going to mess around with me.”

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