RUSSIA’S Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today dismissed as “childish” allegations made by the European leaders that Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

This comes a day after United States President Donald Trump held a top-level summit with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and a group of European leaders in the White House.

Mr Lavrov told Rossiya 24 TV that there is “a clear understanding by both President Trump and his team that this conflict has a reason. 

“The talk that some presidents and prime ministers from Europe are indulging in about Russia attacking Ukraine without provocation is all childish. I can’t find another word.”

Mr Lavrov added: “Some of them, such as Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, continue to say that it is necessary to put pressure on Russia with sanctions.”

After Monday’s White House meeting, Mr Trump said he has begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mr Zelensky to discuss a pathway to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Trump said the US would back European security guarantees aimed at preventing Moscow from reinvading its neighbour once the current conflict ends.

Details of the security guarantees, Mr Trump told the European leaders, had been agreed with Russia and the efforts to arrange peace talks appear to be still evolving.

But speaking on Monday before the White House meetings took place, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected the idea of a possible Nato peacekeeping force in Ukraine. 

She said such a scenario could lead to further escalation and “unpredictable consequences.”

After the White House talks, European leaders expressed optimism about the prospects of ending the conflict. 

The “most important” outcome of the meeting was the “US commitment to work with us on providing security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters.

Mr Trump said he would forge ahead with arrangements for a meeting between Mr Zelensky and President Putin. 

The US leader spoke by phone with Mr Putin during Monday’s talks with Mr Zelensky and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy, plus the president of the European Commission and the head of Nato.

“I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” Mr Trump said in a social media post. 

Russian news agency Tass quoted Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov saying the Russian and US leaders had discussed “the idea of raising the level of the direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.”