Russia rules out Putin-Zelenskyy meeting until end of peace talks

The Kremlin on Friday ruled out any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the last stage in signing a peace deal, definitively rebuffing the Ukrainian leader’s calls for a meeting and describing the two sides’ positions as “diametrically opposed.”

The statement appears to effectively preclude any kind of top-level meeting in the near future and casts doubt on further progress in the peace talks within the 50-day deadline given by President Donald Trump for a peace deal to be reached before the United States imposes new sanctions on Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated that any meeting between the two leaders could only take place after a draft settlement was reached, a direct rejection of Zelenskyy’s call on Thursday for a meeting with Putin to move the stalled peace process forward.

In comments to journalists on Thursday, released Friday, Zelenskyy said negotiating an end to the war “probably begins with a meeting of leaders. It won’t work any other way with them.”

“We need an agenda for such a meeting — a meeting at the level of leaders,” he said.

Peskov rejected the proposal on Friday.

“A summit meeting can and should put an end to the settlement and formalize the modalities and agreements that are to be worked out in the course of expert work,” he said. “It is impossible to do the opposite. Is it possible to complete such a complex process in 30 days? Obviously, it is unlikely.”

A key difference in negotiations has been Trump’s demand for an immediate ceasefire, which Ukraine has accepted and Moscow has rejected. The Ukrainian side, which is under intense Russian pressure on the battlefield, has called for the ceasefire to pave the way for peace talks.

Putin remains confident that his forces can advance and eventually force Ukraine’s capitulation, and is determined to fight on until Kyiv accepts Moscow’s conditions, insisting that talks take place without a ceasefire.

Peskov, who has repeatedly ruled out a meeting of leaders before a draft settlement is agreed, said Russia’s position on this was well-known. He said the two sides’ positions were “diametrically opposed, and it is unlikely that they can be reconciled overnight. This will require very complex diplomatic work.”

On Thursday he showed pessimism about the peace talks, saying that Russia “did not expect a breakthrough,” which was “hardly possible.”

In June, Putin said that he was willing to meet Zelenskyy, but only “if it will be some kind of final stage, so as not to sit there and endlessly divide something, but to put an end to it.”

A meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials on Wednesday lasted just 40 minutes, a sign that the sides remain far apart and have so far failed to agree even on the basic parameters of the talks, let alone haggling in detail about Moscow’s conditions to halt its attacks. The main achievement of talks so far has been prisoner exchanges, with agreement on Wednesday for the exchange of 1,200 more prisoners in the near future.

So far, Russia has stuck to its maximalist demands that would strip Ukraine of its ability to defend itself and keep it out of NATO, as Putin presses ahead with his project to force Kyiv’s capitulation and turn Ukraine into a client state like Belarus.

Russia is also seeking to add a layer to the peace negotiations that could possibly bog down talks into multiple complex processes. The head of Russia’s delegation at the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, said after Wednesday’s meeting that Russia proposed three new working groups on political, military and humanitarian issues, raising the possibility that while prisoner exchanges could advance, political and military issues could remain stalemated.

After rejecting the ceasefire earlier, Russia demanded that both sides draft memorandums on the parameters of the talks, which would then have to be reconciled — effectively stalling the process.

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told Izvestia newspaper that Russia expected that there would be more talks but these would not be easy.

In May, Zelenskyy unsuccessfully pressed Putin to fly to Istanbul to meet him for talks on a ceasefire.