The Kremlin is willing to receive Zelensky for a meeting with Putin: “We guarantee his security”

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be well-prepared and result-oriented, Reuters reports.

Ushakov, in a statement on state television, said that Moscow had never ruled out such a meeting and that if Zelensky was ready for such a meeting, the condition was that he would come to Moscow and his personal security would be guaranteed.

“At the same time, we guarantee (Zelensky) security and the necessary conditions,” the Kremlin adviser said.

Ushakov recalled that “the president (Putin) has stated on various occasions that if Zelensky is really willing for a meeting, then we invite him to Moscow.”

This aspect “was discussed several times during telephone conversations between our president and his American counterpart, Donald Trump,” the presidential adviser also stated, noting that “Trump specifically asked us to study this possibility.”

“It is important that these contacts are well prepared. First of all. And secondly, they must be oriented towards achieving concrete positive results,” Ushakov said.

It is not the first time that Russia has floated the idea of ​​a meeting between the two leaders in Moscow, an idea that Zelenskiy rejected last year, suggesting that Putin come to Kiev.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Axios on Saturday that Zelenskiy and Putin were “very close” to setting up a meeting after Washington brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, last week.

The trilateral in Abu Dhabi, a “progress”

Ushakov's reaction came after the statements previously made by the Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sîbiga, according to which Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to meet with the Russian leader to resolve the main obstacles to peace negotiations: the territorial issue and control over the nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye, occupied by Russian troops since the first weeks of the invasion, EFE and Agerpres agencies note.

Putin and Zelensky have met only once since the latter became Ukraine's president. That meeting took place in December 2019 in Paris, in the presence of the leaders of France and Germany.

Last fall, Zelenskiy declined the Kremlin's invitation to come to Moscow and also disapproved of a possible such meeting with Putin in Budapest, due to his less-than-friendly relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin described as “progress” the trilateral talks on Ukraine, brokered by the US and held last week in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

“This, the beginning of such a dialogue, can already be considered progress. The work is in full swing. And it is good that it started with direct contacts. As you know, an agreement was reached on its continuation. This work will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at his daily press conference.

Peskov had said on Monday that “it would be a mistake to expect major results from the first contacts”.

“It is no secret” that “the territorial issue that is part of the “Anchorage formula” is of course of great importance to the Russian side,” the Kremlin spokesman said, referring to the fact that Moscow will not declare a ceasefire until Ukrainian troops leave the entire territory of Donbas, where Kiev still controls more than a fifth of the Donetsk region.

Moreover, both sides appreciated the negotiations as constructive, during which, according to the Ukrainian president, “possible criteria for ending the war” were discussed.

Western media suggested that the US would have conditioned the granting of security guarantees to Kiev to avoid a future Russian aggression on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region.

Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly requested a meeting with the Russian president in the past, while Moscow has been consistently reluctant.

Trilateral negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the US to reach a negotiated settlement of the war in Ukraine are to resume on Sunday, February 1, Russian news agency Interfax announced.