Zelenskyy says Putin is avoiding meeting by asking him to come to Moscow
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is evading a bilateral meeting by inviting him to Moscow and he quipped that Putin could just as easily come to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy was asked in an interview with ABC about Putin’s proposal to meet in Moscow, an option that appears deliberately unacceptable for Ukraine.
"He can come to Kyiv," Zelenskyy responded.
"If a person doesn't want to meet during the war, of course, he can propose something which can't be acceptable by me. It's understandable – I can't go to Moscow when my country is under missiles, under attacks each day. I can't go to this capital of this terrorist. It's understandable and he understands it. It's the same proposition as I said that he has to come to Kyiv.
So he's doing this to again postpone the meeting. I've always said we can't trust Putin; he's playing games. And he's playing games with the United States, I think so," Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, when asked whether he considered the possibility of a bilateral meeting "dead", Zelenskyy replied in the negative and recalled that he had told Trump he is ready to meet with Putin in any format, provided it does not take place on Russian territory.
"We are ready for any kind of format, to sit and speak. Even preconditions, which we had at the very beginning of the year, that ceasefire, and then a meeting; then we spoke about security guarantees, and then a meeting," he added.
In the ABC interview, Zelenskyy said he believes that Putin got "what he wanted" from his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.
Following talks with the Kremlin leader in China, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Putin is willing to meet Zelenskyy in locations other than Moscow.
- Last
- February, 05
-
-
-
-
- April, 28
-
-
-
-
-
-
- April, 27
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
News by day
18 of September 2025
