Zelenskyy met with Abramovich in Kyiv to convey a message to Putin - FT
Kyiv • UNN
Zelenskyy invited Abramovich to Kyiv to organize direct negotiations with Putin. The dictator rejected the proposal for a meeting, despite the oligarch's efforts.
In May, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich visited Kyiv at the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader attempted to use him to persuade Vladimir Putin to agree to direct peace talks. This was reported by the Financial Times, citing informed sources, writes UNN.
Details
As the publication notes, Zelenskyy invited the sanctioned Russian billionaire and former owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich, to Kyiv last month in an attempt to persuade Putin to hold direct peace talks.
According to sources, Zelenskyy asked Abramovich to convey a message to the Russian ruler that he was ready to hold a bilateral meeting with him.
Ukraine wanted to demonstrate its seriousness regarding direct peace talks with Russia, even as the US, which has attempted to mediate a truce, is distracted by the war in the Middle East, the sources added.
Two senior Ukrainian officials described the message Zelenskyy sent through Abramovich as similar to an open letter to Putin published on the Ukrainian President's website on Thursday. One of the officials noted that the tone of the message was less hostile than in the public letter.
Putin stated on Friday that on May 21, he met with "one of the representatives of our business circles" and "this, let's say, colleague," and told him that he saw no point in meeting with Zelenskyy.
"The only point in this is for the Ukrainians to stop the advance of our armed forces," Putin said at an economic conference in Saint Petersburg. The Russian ruler added that the businessman was not acting in an official capacity.
However, neither Ukraine nor Russia named the businessman.
The FT recalls that Abramovich helped mediate negotiations between Russia and Ukraine from the early weeks of the full-scale war in 2022. Abramovich also helped broker the deal that secured the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea later that year.
Although Abramovich's role has become less prominent since Russia began direct talks with the US last year, he remains involved in prisoner exchanges and other bilateral negotiations with Ukraine, including aspects of the US-sponsored "peace plan," according to people close to him.
"He is needed because he is the only Russian they will tolerate. He gets along with everyone," said one of the interlocutors.
Another source close to Abramovich noted that, according to the Russian oligarch, Zelenskyy "believes he can solve everything through the magic of his personal charisma at a meeting of leaders."
Abramovich calls Zelenskyy's initiative a "competition of captains." "This is not at all what Putin goes for. And it doesn't work much on Trump either. But Zelenskyy is completely fixated on this," the source added.
One source close to Zelenskyy, in a comment to the publication, expressed doubt that "anything significant will happen by the end of summer," referring to negotiations with the RF. According to him, Washington is focused on Iran, and Moscow has not yet realized that it will not be able to capture the rest of Donbas this summer.
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