On Saturday, the Kremlin announced the impossibility of holding a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Miami, rejecting a proposal put forward by the Ukrainian president.
“It is impossible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, reiterating Moscow’s position that any meeting between the two presidents could only take place in the Russian capital.
In response to a question about the possibility of searching for an alternative location, Peskov said: “There is preparation to meet him in Moscow.”
The Russian position came hours after Zelensky announced his readiness to meet Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit scheduled in the United States next December, at a time when the Kremlin has not yet decided on the Russian president’s participation in the summit.
Zelensky stressed that the importance of any meeting with Putin does not lie in the political messages or statements that he may issue, but rather in the ability to transform the talks into tangible results, considering that “words” are not what matters in the end.
These statements come at a time when Washington is working to reactivate its efforts to reach a settlement, after the failure of diplomatic attempts over the past months, coinciding with the escalation of mutual attacks and long-range strikes between Kiev and Moscow.
US President Donald Trump had announced earlier that he had not yet decided on the issue of inviting Putin to the summit, while previous reports indicated that the possibility of the Russian president participating in the G20 leaders’ meeting is still on the table.
