MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he was ready to hold talks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy if the Ukrainian president came to Moscow, but said it remained to be seen whether such a meeting was worthwhile.
Zelenskiy has been pressing to meet Putin to discuss the terms of a possible deal and U.S. President Donald Trump – who has been trying to broker a peace settlement – has said he wants the two leaders to meet.
Speaking in China at the end of a visit there, Putin said he had always been open to meeting Zelenskiy but reiterated the Kremlin’s oft-repeated stance that such a meeting had to be well prepared in advance and lead to tangible results.
“As for a meeting with Zelenskiy I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let’s see,” said Putin.
The Russian leader said that in his view Ukraine needed to cancel martial law, hold elections, and hold a referendum about territorial questions if progress was to be made.
Russia claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022, a claim Kyiv and most Western countries rejected as an attempted illegal land grab backed by a colonial-style war of conquest.
(Reporting by Reuters;Writing by Andrew OsbornEditing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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