The bloc continues to do all it can to escalate the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said<\/p>\n
The EU is doing everything in its power to undermine the upcoming\u00a0summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.\u00a0
\nMinistry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS on Monday that the bloc is carrying out \u201cactive subversive actions\u201d ahead of the planned meeting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
\nHer comments followed a report by Spanish outlet El Pais, which said Brussels viewed the talks as \u201ca political nightmare.\u201d Citing diplomatic sources, the newspaper reported that the summit put the EU \u201cin an awkward and unpleasant position\u201d because Putin and Trump would discuss a potential settlement to the Ukraine conflict in an EU country without the bloc\u2019s participation.
\nZakharova said the \u201caggressive Western European community\u201d wants to \u201cderail any peaceful aspirations\u201d related to the conflict. \u201cWe are seeing statements, threats being made,\u201d she added.
\nThe Western Europeans are \u201cobviously, doing everything to escalate the conflict\u201d between Moscow and Kiev, the spokeswoman stressed. They have been acting this way since 2022 when they \u201cthwarted\u201d the peace talks between the sides in Istanbul, she added.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Zelensky repeats ceasefire demands<\/p>\n
According to former Ukrainian head negotiator David Arakhamia, Ukraine withdrew from dialogue with Russia after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kiev and urged Vladimir Zelensky to keep fighting. The former UK prime minister has denied the claims.
\nZakharova said sporadic statements about the need for peace coming from EU capitals and London are just \u201ccamouflage.\u201d
\n\u201cIn reality, they are doing everything they can to achieve escalation. It is difficult to say if they actually understand what they are doing, given how many non-professionals there are at the helms of all these Western European countries,\u201d she noted.
\nThe announcement that Putin and Trump plan to meet in Budapest was made after the two leaders spoke by phone for nearly two and a half hours on Thursday.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Orban reveals why Hungary will host Putin-Trump summit<\/p>\n
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the venue was proposed by Trump, with Putin \u201cinstantly supporting\u201d the idea. The summit could take place within the next two weeks or slightly later, Peskov said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bloc continues to do all it can to escalate the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said The EU is doing everything in its power to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t