Russia vows to keep fighting while any talks on Ukraine take place
The Russian government also insists Ukranian leaders travel to Moscow for any peace negotiations
The Russian Foreign Minister has said Russia will not halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine during potential upcoming peace talks.
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Speaking on Saturday, September 12, Foreign Minister Seigei Lavrov said that the nation is ready for peacekeeping talks.
However, he told the press: "We are still ready for negotiations, but the [war against Ukraine] will not be stopped during this period.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is open to meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the December G20 leader’s summit in Miami. However, the Russian delegation has said that peace talks can only be held in Moscow.
An invitation was sent to [Zelensky]. If he wants to meet, then he should come," said Lavrov.
Read more: Russian warship fired two emergency flares at Danish military helicopter
Read more: Trump says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop striking energy targets
Zelenskyy has offered to meet Putin and a Russian delegation several times, but has said he will not go to Moscow. The Ukrainian government has also said it will only engage in talks during a ceasefire.
The two presidents have not met since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The war has now lasted for longer than the First World War.
An American delegation for the Trump administration including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner travelled to Moscow in early September with a “direct proposal to end the war” for Putin.
President Donald Trump vowed to end the war in Ukraine when he entered office in January 2025.
Details of the discussions have not been released. They were described as "constructive, extremely frank" by Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov.
Following those talks, Russian strikes continued in Ukraine. Notably, Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that a train he was taking was attacked by Russian drones on the border between Ukraine and Poland on Sunday, September 13.
Johnson posted to X saying: “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning.”
I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning. What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day - even on civilian railways. So far Putin…
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) September 13, 2026
According to Johnson, 1,700 Ukrainian railway staff had been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. He praised rail workers and passengers as “absolutely heroic”.
None of the 206 passengers onboard, including Johnson and several other diplomats, were injured as they were successfully evacuated prior to the strike.
The former PM called on the UK to supply Ukraine with more air defences and to use frozen Russian assets, including the £10 billion worth of assets in London, to support the country.
President Trump took to Truth Social on September 14 to announce that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop striking eachother's energy targets.
"Ukraine agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise." wrote the president.
The president then said that the currently high global cost of diesel is due to the war in Ukraine, not the war in Iran.