Vladimir Putin has poured cold water on Volodymyr Zelensky’s push for direct talks, saying he sees “no point” in a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian president until a peace agreement is already on the table.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, the Russian president argued that any summit would only matter if Ukraine first halted what he described as the advance of Russia’s armed forces. His comments came a day after Mr Zelensky published an open letter urging the two leaders to meet.
“I see no point in meeting. It only makes sense for the Ukrainian side to stop the advance of our armed forces. That’s it. And we need agreements,” Putin told the forum.
He said any groundwork should be left to specialists before leaders sit down together.
“Let the experts work, develop some solutions, and then we can meet,” Putin added.
Putin also insisted the conflict would end only when Moscow had met its objectives.
“Military actions will end some day, we assume. Without a doubt, they will end once we have achieved the goals we have set for ourselves,” Mr Putin said.
Russia has demanded control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as well as sweeping political and military restrictions on Ukraine.
The EU had earlier backed Mr Zelensky’s call for direct talks in a letter to Mr Putin.
Mr Zelensky had proposed that the two leaders meet to agree an end to more than four years of war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise.
“We welcome President Zelensky’s call for direct negotiations and also the call for a ceasefire — and from our side, we will go once more through the facts, and this is that Ukraine wants peace, Europe wants peace,” EU spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said.
In his letter, which Mr Zelensky’s office said was also sent to other countries including the United States, the Ukrainian president argued that many Russians were growing weary of the strain of the war from Ukrainian missile and drone attacks to inflation and fuel shortages — and were ready for peace.
Mr Zelensky also pointed to Washington’s attention being trained on the conflict in Iran, saying that “it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention”.
Any route to peace, he wrote, must begin where the fighting is taking place, calling the frontline “the line from which diplomacy must begin”. Ukraine, he said, supports “a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations”.
“This is standard practice.”
Municipal workers and residents clear the rubble from the streets following a Russian air strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine
He said the United States “has the capability to monitor a ceasefire along the line where hostilities stop”.
Mr Zelensky proposed setting a firm date for a leaders’ meeting and noted that several countries had “traditionally hosted leaders to resolve issues of war and peace”, naming Switzerland, Turkey and countries in the Arab world.
“Do not be afraid to take the path out of this war. That is the main thing that is required of you now,” Mr Zelensky wrote.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting … If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence.”
Mr Zelensky also suggested that an extended conflict could put Putin’s personal standing at risk.
Mr Zelensky said the US ‘has the capability to monitor a ceasefire along the line where hostilities stop’
“It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes.”
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Mr Zelensky’s appeal for direct talks with Mr Putin, saying it was “time” to resume dialogue with Moscow.
“I believe that it is now up to Ukraine and Russia to establish both a ceasefire and a peace plan.
“It is the Europeans who can help with this,” Mr Macron said at a summit of EU and Balkan leaders in Montenegro.
Leaders of France, Germany and UK to meet Zelensky
The leaders of France, Germany and Britain are set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in London on Sunday for talks on increasing pressure on Russia, as Moscow faces military setbacks in its invasion of its neighbour, according to the French presidency.
Mr Macron will be joined by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with the Elysee saying they will discuss next steps with Mr Zelensky at a moment when “Russia, in a state of military, economic and strategic failure, is persisting unsuccessfully with a deadly war”.
Analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), published earlier this month, found that Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May for the second straight month.
At the same time, Russia’s offensive has been accompanied by mounting economic pressures — including rising prices, tax hikes, borrowing costs at a two-decade high, business closures and labour shortages — leaving the economy facing its most difficult period since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The talks, due to begin at Downing Street at around 6.30pm on Sunday, will also “take stock of the work undertaken in favour of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and on the European continent”, the French presidency said.
Russia could attack NATO country within four years – Starmer
US soldiers during NATO military exercises in Poland last month
Mr Starmer warned on Saturday that western intelligence assessments indicate Russia could attack a NATO country within four years.
He spoke as he pledged to publish a long-delayed defence investment plan before next month’s NATO summit.
“It is our intelligence assessment and the assessment of other countries in NATO that there could be an attack by Russia on NATO as soon as 2030,” Mr Starmer said.
“So you can see the urgency and the priority that we’re putting behind this now,” he added during a visit to a drone manufacturer in southwest England.
His warning matches similar timelines offered by European leaders and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, who said in December that Russia “could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years”.
Mr Starmer has pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product from next year, increasing to 3% in the next parliament.
A 10-year defence investment plan, expected after a review of the UK’s defence capabilities, had been due late last year but has yet to appear.
Mr Starmer said it would be released before the NATO summit in Turkey, which begins on 7 July.
UK media has reported that the plan has been delayed due to disagreement between the finance ministry and other departments over the cost.
Mr Starmer insisted to reporters it would be “fully funded”.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged NATO countries to spend more on defence and become less reliant on Washington for security.
Ukrainian envoy seeks to ease WWII dispute with Poland
A Ukrainian envoy held talks in Poland on Saturday in a long-running dispute between the neighbours after Kyiv named a military unit after a nationalist group accused of carrying out World War II-era massacres in Poland.
Poland remains a crucial ally for Ukraine in its war with Russia, but Mr Zelensky angered the government in Warsaw by recently naming a unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Poland accuses the nationalist UPA of killing 100,000 Poles from 1943 to 1945.
Poland’s nationalist president Karol Nawrocki said that Zelensky should be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour, that was awarded three years ago.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the decision as “worrying”, while Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz urged Ukraine in a social media video released Friday to “reconsider this decision”.
“For the Polish people, the UPA is above all the symbol of crimes committed against defenceless civilians,” added the minister, who was to meet Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov on Saturday.
Mr Budanov met Poland’s deputy foreign minister Marcin Bosacki on Saturday, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“The Ukrainian side took the initiative for this meeting,” said spokesperson Maciej Wewior, who added that the naming of the military unit “Heroes of the UPA” was “the main topic of the meeting”.
Polish media said Budanov would also meet representatives of Nawrocki on Saturday.
Poland has been one of the most fervent supporters of Ukraine in its battle against Russia, and much western aid passes through Polish territory.
Even so, tensions over the UPA have lingered for decades. The group served as the armed wing of a Ukrainian independence movement that fought Soviet forces but also collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Ukraine now regards the UPA as a patriotic organisation, while Poland has repeatedly called on Kyiv to acknowledge the group’s role in killings in the Volyn region, in what is now northwest Ukraine.
After years of inaction, the two countries resumed exhumations in the area again last year.
