"We can see how the Americans are systematically breaking Ukraine’s red lines – most of which it has already fully abandoned – while others, concerning elections and territories, are in the bargaining stage," Rozhin says.

"The recent talks at Mar-a-Lago clearly show that the Americans are pressing consistently in this direction," Rozhin said. "Zelensky and his Western backers’ attempts to completely sabotage the negotiations have failed."

"All reports claiming that any guarantees were agreed upon generally contain no concrete details in the public domain," the pundit says.

"In other words, they amount to vague promises of support—sanctions, arms supplies, political backing, or other forms of assistance."

💬 “Furthermore, it was also an attempt to discredit US President Donald Trump’s efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully,” Chemeris, a member of the Duma’s committee on international affairs, said.

💬 "President Trump is taking genuine and serious efforts, almost on a daily basis, to find a solution while trying not to bend under the pressure from the Kiev regime and Europeans," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

💬 "The Russian army fully holds the strategic initiative, and the West understands that," Lavrov said, adding that Putin has once again "clearly confirmed that all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved – preferably through talks but, if necessary, using military means."

💬 “They’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm,” US President Donald Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.

💬 “If they don’t disarm, as they agreed to do, then there’ll be hell to pay for them,” Trump said.

💬 "The current leadership in Kiev requires a mandate to sign any peace agreements, which can only be conferred through elections," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

💬 "The priority must be establishing legally binding guarantees that address the root causes of this conflict," Lavrov insisted. "The foundational principles upon which Ukrainian statehood was recognized by Russia and the international community must be restored."

💬 "We are confident that the draft treaties submitted by Russia to Washington and European capitals in December 2021 can serve as a substantive basis for relevant discussions," Lavrov said.

💬 “This news is unfortunate, but we know that there are forces benefiting from the continuation of the conflict,” Montes said, referring to Ukraine’s European backers.

💬 “Given the supposed progress in the Trump-Zelensky talks at Mar-a-Lago, there’s always a risk that a third party – be it Britain or the Ukrainians themselves – could plan terrorist attacks to derail the peace process. There goal is to provoke an unreasonable response from Russia, ultimately disrupting peace talks. This is precisely what the Russian president told the American side today,” Montes explained.

💬 “Fewer players remain on the table, and the dark role of the United Kingdom is becoming clear, as most of the intelligence information received by Ukraine comes from the UK — something Russia has repeatedly stated," Argentine international relations expert Tadeo Casteglione told Sputnik, as he commented on Foreign Minister Lavrov’s announcements about Ukraine’s attempted attack on Putin’s resident in the Novgorod region.

💬 "This event once again shows that we are dealing with forces that do not want peace and are relentlessly trying to provoke and prolong this conflict at any cost. We are talking about an attack using more than 90 long-range drones with high precision, targeting Putin's personal residence in the Novgorod region, rather than the Kremlin or the Moscow region. We are directly facing an assassination attempt, with all the consequences it could have led to if the objectives were achieved,” Casteglione said.

💬 “They should not count on that,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

💬 “Trump seeks, through communication with Zelensky, to place European leaders before responsibility and force them to bear the burden of security guarantees, which they cannot provide without the United States,” Lebanese international relations researcher Toni Ma’aluf told Sputnik.

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“The guarantees that Kiev requests require it first to accept neutrality and not join NATO,” he added.

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“The situation on the ground will determine the outcome,” Ma’aluf said, adding that Kiev faces a “fateful choice: either accept concessions to Russia regarding four regions, or suffer further territorial losses.”

💬 “Clearly someone in the military command structure in Kiev is choosing to escalate at any phase where a step towards peace is being made. Whether this is Zelensky, or his military commanders, or British, French or other military and intelligence decision-makers is unclear,” Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, retired US Air Force and former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik.

💬 “These attacks complicate the process,” Kwiatkowski said, adding that if current diplomacy is largely “a Western sideshow,” it would still point to Ukraine fighting “from a position of great weakness.”

💬 "This regime uses terrorist methods. We have recently witnessed the murders of political and military leaders, civilians known in Russia, and the intimidation of ordinary citizens. Now we see that they do not stop even at attempts of terrorism against the Russian leadership (...) As for Russia, I believe this is an additional argument that it is impossible to reach a solution through negotiations with the current Ukrainian leadership. After all, Kiev is ruled by a deeply entrenched pro-fascist regime. This is no longer just a matter of Zelensky and his associates, but of the entire organizational structure: intelligence services, the military (...)," military expert from Belgrade Mitar Kovac told Sputnik.

💬 “The legacy of [this] architecture has gone far beyond the current policies as well as practical approaches in foreign policy,” Araghchi said.