Moscow, July 4 (IANS) Russia’s presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Saturday said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could travel to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin once he is ready to make what the Kremlin described as important and responsible decisions, local media reported.
Speaking to Radio KP, Peskov commented on Zelensky’s proposal to meet Putin in Kostiantynivka, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
He said that Putin had expressed his willingness to host Zelensky in Moscow, noting that Moscow, and not Kostiantynivka, is the capital of Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, Zelensky stated that Putin had falsely claimed that Russian forces had captured Kostiantynivka and invited the Russian President to meet him there.
“On the eve of America’s Independence Day, Putin has chosen to lie to the world and to the President of the United States about the situation on the front. He claims that Russian forces have supposedly captured Kostiantynivka in the Donbas. Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story.
“If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war. But the fact is, he won’t cross the front line – reality is very different from Putin’s words,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Last month, Putin said that he “still sees no reason” to meet Zelensky.
“I don’t see the point of a meeting. It would only be of interest to the Ukrainian side to stop the advance of our armed forces,” Putin said, adding that it was necessary to “let specialists work, develop solutions, and then we can meet”, arguing that a meeting with Zelensky would be “useless” until a peace agreement was reached.
The remarks came amid an open letter by Zelensky inviting Putin for direct discussions.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky said in the letter.
“It would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention,” he added.
He proposed that Switzerland, Turkey and countries of the Arab world host the talks and help resolve outstanding issues.
–IANS
ksk/pgh
