Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “ready” to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but said he does not want the face-to-face to be through American or European channels.
Speaking with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria at the Yalta European Strategy Conference last week in Kyiv, the leader of Ukraine expressed the need to negotiate an end to the war that Russia escalated in 2022.
“Sometimes we need it. Even if we don’t love faces,” Zelenskyy said of a potential in-person meeting with Putin.
(Video Credit: CNN)
“So there is an order of the points of discussions,” he explained, speaking about a necessary ceasefire before any negotiations take place, and how Putin cannot be trusted.
“The first, we need meeting with outcome of ceasefire. And he is not ready for the meeting for today. It’s true. Yes. Then if he wants to speak about territories and about some historical crazy things and et cetera,” Zelenskyy said.
“I’m ready to speak with him. But not through Americans, not through Europeans. With their support, yes, but not through,” he told Zakaria.
President Donald Trump remarked on the deep animosity between Zelenskyy and Putin as he spoke with reporters.
(Video Credit: Associated Press)
“The hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin is unfathomable,” Trump said. “I think I’m going to have to do all the talking. They hate each other. There will be talks, whether you call it a summit or just a get-together, it doesn’t matter.”
“They hate each other so much they almost can’t talk,” the president added. “They’re incapable of talking to each other.”
Putin has claimed he “has never been against meeting with Zelenskyy.”
“If Zelenskyy is ready, then let him come to Moscow,” Putin said last week. “This meeting will take place.”
Zelenskyy noted he declined Putin’s suggestion that he travel to Moscow to negotiate a settlement.
“He can come to Kyiv,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with ABC News’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”
“I can’t go to Moscow when my country’s under missiles, under attack, each day. I can’t go to the capital of this terrorist,” the Ukrainian president said, adding that Putin “understands this.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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