Top House Democrat to Zelensky: ‘Don’t go to Moscow’

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Wednesday evening warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to attend a Moscow summit floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I’ll give a free piece of advice to President Zelensky: Don’t go to Moscow. They don’t have your best interests at heart,” Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“If he wants to meet with President Zelensky, obviously he’ll have to do it on neutral ground somewhere,” Smith added later, referring to Putin. “They are adversaries. Putin has claimed that Zelensky is not the legitimate president. He’s tried to kill him on multiple occasions. So no, I don’t think that this is a legitimate offer.”

On Wednesday, Putin questioned why a meeting with Zelensky is needed, but he offered to host a summit in Russia’s capital. His comments came at the end of President Trump’s two-week deadline to host a bilateral meeting to discuss ending the more than three-year war.

“Does it make sense to meet with the current administration [Zelensky]?” Putin asked, reiterating a common Russian argument that their country sees the Ukrainian leader as illegitimate.

“We could do — I’ve never refused to do that if that leads to some positive outcomes,” the Russian leader added, according to a Sky News translation. “Donald [Trump] asked me if it was possible. I said, ‘Yes, it was possible.’ I said, ‘Let him come to Moscow.’”

Trump and his administration have pushed for an end to the war in Ukraine throughout the first few months of his second term, to no luck. He recently met with Putin in Alaska and Zelensky in Washington, D.C., alongside other European leaders.

Smith previously criticized Trump’s meeting with Putin, calling it “very disappointing.” He argued the president came out of the meeting more aligned with the Russian leader.