Russia says 'no meeting planned' with Zelensky

MOSCOW, Aug 22 (Agencies): Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday there was "no meeting planned" between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, despite US attempts to organise the summit.
"There is no meeting planned," Lavrov said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker".
US President Donald Trump raised expectations for a swift summit between the leaders, by saying they have both agreed to meet after he received President Volodymyr Zelensky with European allies in the White House.
Lavrov told the US broadcaster that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "ready to meet Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit," adding that it was "not ready at all".
Lavrov earlier this week slammed the White House meeting as a "clumsy" attempt by Europeans to change the US leader's position on Ukraine, agreed with Putin at a summit in Alaska last week.
And on Friday, he dashed hopes for a Putin-Zelensky meeting to resolve the conflict now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president's legitimacy and repeating Russia's maximalist claims.
"There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything," according to Lavrov.
Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry on Friday said its troops have captured three villages in Ukraine's east Donetsk region, grinding closer to Kyiv's key defensive line in the embattled area.
Russian forces are slowly but steadily gaining ground in costly metre-for-metre battles for largely devastated areas in eastern Ukraine, with few inhabitants or intact buildings left.
Moscow has captured "the settlements of Katerynivka, Volodymyrivka and Rusyn Yar in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry said on Telegram, using the name Moscow uses for the region that it claimed to have annexed in September 2022.
This comes as Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of not being interested in a sustainable peace, reducing the likelihood of a speedy meeting between the countries' leaders to settle the conflict.
Ukraine has cut gas supply to the city of Kostiantynivka, an important stronghold town around two dozen miles away from the captured settlements, after the enemy's shelling hit a pipeline.
"Due to extensive damage, it was not possible to maintain working pressure in the gas supply system in Kostiantynivka," Donetsk regional authorities said, adding that it was impossible to repair the pipeline due to lack of safety for the workers.
Ukraine's presidential aide Andriy Yermak posted a photo of a 10-storey residential apartment building in Kostiantynivka, engulfed in fire triggered by the shelling.
"Russia continues its terror because it is not achieving the desired results," he said.
One civilian was wounded in the shelling, local authorities said Friday.
Kyiv had earlier ordered civilians to evacuate from the town.
N Korea's Kim decorates
troops who fought for
Russia against Ukraine
New images released by North Korean state media on Friday showed leader Kim Jong Un kneeling before portraits of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, as well as hugging an emotional survivor of the conflict.
The images of an elaborate ceremony showed an overcome Kim presenting medals, placing them beside portraits of the fallen and consoling the returned soldiers, as Pyongyang's leadership hailed the soldiers as "heroes" who sacrificed their youth and lives.
South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said the North sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024 -- primarily to the Kursk region -- along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems.
Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.
At the ceremony held at the Workers' Party headquarters in Pyongyang, portraits of the fallen soldiers, along with their names, were displayed on stage, the images showed.
There, Kim praised the "admirable" troops "who returned home with great honour" after enduring the "hail of bullets and bombs of the life-and-death war in the foreign country." Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
In one of the images released by KCNA, an emotional Kim was seen embracing a returned solider who appeared overwhelmed, burying his face in the leader's chest during the ceremony.
The leader was also seen kneeling before a portrait of a fallen soldier to pay his respects, and placing medals and flowers beside the images of the dead.
Kim personally awarded the title of "DPRK (North Korea) hero", to commanding officers who fought in overseas operations and "performed distinguished feats", KCNA said.
It added that he also laid a flower at the memorial wall and met with bereaved families to console them and share "the pain of loss".
North Korea only confirmed it had deployed troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine in April, and admitted that its soldiers had been killed in combat.
US President Donald Trump has held high-profile talks with Russian and Ukrainian leaders in recent days in a bid to end the conflict, but there has been little tangible progress since then.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine as "heroic" in a letter to Kim, Pyongyang's state media said last week.
Washington has said there is evidence that Russia is stepping up support for North Korea, including providing help on advanced space and satellite technology, in return for its assistance in fighting Ukraine.