Zelensky on Putin’s Moscow invitation: ‘He can come to Kyiv’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuffed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation for a summit in Moscow, saying Friday that the Kremlin leader “can come to” Kyiv instead.
“He can come to Kyiv. I can’t go to Moscow when my country’s under missiles, under attack, each day,” Zelensky said in an interview with ABC News that was released Friday evening. “I can’t go to the capital of this terrorist.”
The Ukrainian leader said that Putin’s offer for a summit on his own turf was meant to “postpone the meeting” and he reiterated that he is ready to meet with the Russian president in “any kind of format.”
Still, Putin has questioned the need for a meeting as Russian officials have suggested direct peace talks in the more than three-year-long war are still a way off. On Wednesday, the Kremlin leader suggested Zelensky come to Moscow instead.
“We could do — I’ve never refused to do that if that leads to some positive outcomes,” Putin said of a potential huddle. “[President Trump] asked me if it was possible. I said, ‘Yes, it was possible.’ I said, ‘Let him come to Moscow.'”
As part of his quest to end the war in Eastern Europe, Trump has pushed for Zelensky and Putin to schedule an in-person meeting, particularly after meeting with both leaders in the U.S., separately, last month.
Recently, the president cast doubt about the prospects of a summit, suggesting that “maybe they have to fight a little longer,” but expressed more confidence in a trilateral meeting between the three world leaders.
“A [trilateral] would happen. A [bilateral], I don’t know about, but a tri will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready for it,” the president said in last week’s interview with The Daily Caller.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also suggested last week that it is “clear” that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky will not take place.
Zelensky told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz in Friday’s interview that the Russian president is “playing games” with the U.S.
“If a person doesn’t want to meet during the war, of course, he can propose something which can’t be acceptable by me or by others,” he said.