Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in December, according to an interview released today, as diplomatic efforts to end the war gather pace.
Washington is trying to revive negotiations over the conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II. US negotiators have recently travelled to Kyiv and Moscow, while President Donald Trump and Mr Putin spoke by phone this week about the war.
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Volodymyr Zelensky has also announced he plans to meet Donald Trump in late September
The United States holds this year’s presidency of the Group of 20 major economies, a forum made up of 19 countries, the European Union and the African Union. The presidency will culminate in a leaders’ summit in Miami in December.
Russia’s finance minister has already taken part in one G20 meeting, prompting unease among some of Ukraine’s allies. A Russian diplomat said today that Moscow would also send officials to a G20 energy meeting in Houston next week.
“We have to come. We have to meet, to speak, and make decisions.
“It’s not about words. What I will tell him or what he wants to tell me, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Matters only result. Result matters. That’s it.”
The Kremlin, however, said it had not decided whether Mr Putin would attend the G20 summit in Miami.
“We do not know yet whether we will be going to Miami,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying.
US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow last weekend. Earlier this week, Mr Putin and Mr Trump also discussed the war during an hour-long phone call that the Kremlin described as “extremely frank” and constructive.
Diplomatic efforts intensify
Speaking to Deutsche Welle in an interview conducted yesterday in Canada, Mr Zelensky called Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner’s visit a “good signal”. He said it was significant that the two men had travelled to both Kyiv and Moscow.
“It’s respect to our people,” he said.
Mr Zelensky has also said he intends to meet Mr Trump in late September, as Washington presses for renewed face-to-face negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
Asked about Ukraine’s position before any potential talks, Mr Zelensky said: “Ukraine now is much more stronger than last year on the battlefield.”
Russia, he said, was suffering heavy losses and paying a “big price” for making “very slow moves on the battlefield”.
“That’s why we think that we have now good position for negotiations.”
Kyiv said negotiations could begin as early as this month, but the Kremlin said on Monday that it was “too early” to discuss a location or dates.
Several earlier rounds of negotiations have ended without progress. Trust remains low, and neither Moscow nor Kyiv appears to have changed its position.
Both sides have intensified long-range attacks in recent months, contributing to the highest civilian death toll since the opening phase of the war.
Mr Zelensky also renewed his appeal for Ukraine’s allies to supply additional interceptor missiles to protect the country from Russian air attacks.
“Russia produces… today 140 ballistic missiles per month. So, according to the rules of NATO, if you want to destroy 140, you need 280… You will never have 280 missiles per month,” he said.
Producing 100 interceptor missiles a month would itself be a “huge challenge”, he said.
