Former U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated that the timeline for a peace process in Ukraine is not progressing as quickly as he had anticipated months ago. In an interview with radio host Todd Starnes, he stated, “I hope that within two weeks we will know if there will be peace,” echoing a similar timeframe he suggested after recent meetings, saying a clearer picture would emerge in “one or two weeks.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has listed Switzerland, Austria, or Turkey as potential hosts for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, such an event remains highly hypothetical, with recent hours seeing the prospect dwindle due to renewed rigidity from both sides. According to U.S. officials, Trump himself is now intending to take a step back from his mediation efforts.
The most difficult issue to resolve appears to be the security guarantees demanded by Kyiv. Zelensky has spoken of a “trilateral meeting” including Trump, which he believes will only be possible once an agreement on this point is found—a prospect he estimates could happen “within 7-10 days.” Conversely, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that Moscow finds the potential deployment of European troops in Ukraine—an idea recently floated by Britain and French President Emmanuel Macron—”absolutely unacceptable.” Lavrov dismissed the notion as a possible attempt “to attract attention to themselves,” adding that it would be rejected not only by Russia but by “all political forces of good sense in Europe.”
Moscow supports the security guarantee framework discussed during the 2022 Istanbul negotiations, which involved a role for permanent UN Security Council members, including China and Russia. This proposal has been rejected by Zelensky, who stated, “First, China did not help us stop this war from the very beginning. Second, China helped Russia by opening its drone market… We do not need guarantors who do not help Ukraine and did not help it at a time when we really needed it.”
The territorial dispute also remains a critical obstacle. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed recent reports that the Russian leader is demanding not only the four regions already claimed (in addition to Crimea annexed in 2014) but also “some portions” of territory that are “not yet” occupied. These demands emerged after the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska. Vance also emphasized that European nations would have to provide the “lion’s share” of any security guarantees for Ukraine—a point contested by Lavrov, who accused Europeans of orchestrating a “conspiracy” to sabotage peace efforts by ignoring “Russian interests.”
Amid these tensions, Lavrov cited institutional hurdles, reviving doubts about Zelensky’s legitimacy to sign a peace agreement following the expiration of his presidential mandate in May 2024, as new elections were not held due to martial law. Lavrov emphasized that the “problem of the legitimacy of the person who will sign these agreements” must be resolved before any ceremony. Zelensky responded that he would be happy if elections had already been held to end what he called political bickering over the issue.
Further complicating matters, Bloomberg reported that Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after a White House meeting with EU leaders and Zelensky to persuade him not to oppose Ukraine’s EU membership. This was categorically denied by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who affirmed his government’s unchanged position against Ukraine’s accession.