Zelenskiy has been pressing to meet Putin to discuss the terms of a possible deal and U.S. President Donald Trump – who has been trying to broker a peace settlement – has said he wants the two leaders to meet.
Speaking in China at the end of a visit there, Putin said he had always been open to meeting Zelenskiy but reiterated the Kremlin’s oft-repeated stance that such a meeting had to be well prepared in advance and lead to tangible results.
“As for a meeting with Zelenskiy I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let’s see,” said Putin.
The Russian leader said that in his view Ukraine needed to cancel martial law, hold elections, and hold a referendum about territorial questions if progress was to be made.
Russia claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022, a claim Kyiv and most Western countries rejected as an attempted illegal land grab backed by a colonial-style war of conquest.
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