Putin aide pushes Moscow meeting that Zelenskyy has already ruled out
Yuri Ushakov said the Russian dictator wants Volodymyr Zelenskyy to come to Moscow to meet with him. (Photo: Pavel Bednyakov/Pool via REUTERS)
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is ready to meet Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Moscow, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov cynically said
on May 9.
“Our president has said several times that if he [Zelenskyy]
wants to, he is welcome to call Moscow. We are ready to receive him and hold
talks,” Russian media quoted Ushakov as saying.
Asked whether Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had passed
along any message from Zelenskyy to Putin about a possible meeting, Ushakov
said “Fico did not pass along any special messages, but he did talk about his
contact with Zelenskyy.”
Asked whether Zelenskyy had asked Fico to convey anything to
Putin about a possible meeting, Ushakov said: “These are old signals that were
passed through many people, including through Trump. Let him call, because he
passes something along, and then everything is left hanging.”
Zelenskyy has said more than once that he is ready to meet
Putin, but not in Moscow or Kyiv. He has said the meeting could take place in
the Middle East, Europe or the United States.
“I am ready to meet with Putin. Of course, not in Moscow and
not in Kyiv. But if he is ready to meet with me, there are many places for
that. We can find such a place in the Middle East, Europe, the United States —
anywhere,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Rai Italia in April 2026.
In an interview with Axios on Feb. 17, Zelenskyy said he had
instructed Ukraine’s negotiating team to raise the issue of a future
leaders-level meeting in Geneva. He said the best way to achieve a breakthrough
on territorial issues is to meet Putin in person.
Zelenskyy has also said he is ready to meet a Russian
delegation on neutral territory, but has ruled out meeting Putin in Moscow.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said Zelenskyy
and Putin would discuss territorial issues and the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power
Plant at any possible meeting.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine’s position on
territorial issues has not changed. Kyiv will not agree to cede Donetsk and
Luhansk Oblasts to Russia.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, continues to insist on the so-called
Anchorage formula, which would require Ukraine’s Defense Forces to withdraw
from the Donbas and freeze the front lines as they stand in other parts of
eastern and southern Ukraine.
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