- Putin refuses to meet with Zelensky without a previously prepared peace agreement.
- The Russian president demands that experts first develop concrete peace solutions.
- Zelenskyy proposes a personal meeting in a neutral country and a cease-fire.
- Russia makes the end of operations conditional on control of Donbass and other concessions by Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin considers it pointless to meet with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky unless a peace agreement is prepared. He made this statement on Friday during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He was reacting to Zelensky’s open letter from Thursday, in which the Ukrainian leader invited him to a personal meeting with the aim of agreeing on an end to the war. TASR informs about it based on the AFP report.
“I don’t see the point in the meeting. For the Ukrainian side, it only makes sense to stop the advance of our armed forces. That’s all. And we need agreements,” Putin said. “Let the experts work, let them work out some solutions, and then we can meet,” he declared.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy addressed an open letter to Putin, inviting him to a personal meeting in a neutral country. He also proposed a full ceasefire during negotiations to end the war, the exchange of all prisoners of war and the adoption of arrangements for the return of civilians and children abducted during the war.
The Kremlin immediately responded by saying that the Ukrainian president is welcome in Moscow whenever he wants to meet with Putin. The Russian president also said on Friday that the military operations will one day end, but only when Russia achieves its stated goals. The AFP agency recalls that Moscow demands control over the entire eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, as well as other political and military concessions from Ukraine.
