Russia’s Foreign Minister said on Sunday there were no plans for a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.

Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”

Volodymyr Zelensky said this week there will be contacts with Turkey, Gulf States and with European states which could host talks with the Russians.

President Trump on Tuesday said Russian officials questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was just “posturing” as part of peace negotiations. “It

Analysts weighed in on what concessions Zelensky may consider making to end the war and what's likely to be off the table.

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.

Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview released on Friday that “there is no meeting planned” between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. It was the Kremlin’s most direct declaration yet that a summit the White House suggested was imminent was nowhere close to materializing.

Geneva, Istanbul and Budapest have been put forward as potential locations - but bilateral talks still remain a long way off.