Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, avoided directly answering the question of whether the Kremlin chief is ready to hold a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. UNN reports this, citing Russian media.
Instead, he said that the Ukrainian leader had not yet called Putin.
Details
During a conversation with a Russian journalist, Peskov was asked whether Putin would answer phone calls from French President Emmanuel Macron or German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The Kremlin representative assured that the head of the Russian Federation was allegedly open to contacts with all world leaders.
"He will pick up the phone as well. Of course, he is open to dialogue with everyone," Peskov said.
After that, the journalist clarified whether Putin would agree to a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy if Zelenskyy personally called him.
"Well, no one has called yet," the Kremlin spokesman replied, avoiding a direct answer to the question.
Peskov still did not clarify whether Putin was ready to speak directly with Zelenskyy by phone. Separately, the Kremlin representative said that the issue of European countries participating in trilateral talks between Ukraine, the United States and Russia had allegedly not been discussed with anyone.
The Office of the President explained why a telephone conversation between Zelenskyy and Putin will not replace a meeting of the leaders
Meanwhile, the OP commented on the possibility of a telephone conversation between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. It stressed that a full-fledged meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and Russia—not merely a phone call—is necessary to reach agreements on ending the war.
The office noted that this was not the first time the Kremlin had tried to replace the issue of trilateral negotiations at the highest level with proposals for other formats of communication.
This is not the first time the Russians have talked either about a phone call or about "let him go to Moscow" in order to evade the need for a trilateral format at the leaders' level. It is logical that key issues must be resolved at the level of the leaders, but this means precisely a meeting and the corresponding discussions, agreements and guarantees—which are obviously difficult to implement when it is simply a phone call
The Office of the President once again emphasized that the Ukrainian side stresses the need for full-fledged negotiations, during which it will be possible both to discuss the terms for ending the war and to reach specific agreements and determine guarantees for their implementation.
Previously
Earlier, Zelenskyy emphasized that the issue of ending the war, particularly territories and security guarantees, must be discussed directly at the level of the leaders of the states.