Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he sees no point in either inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kyiv or calling him. He made the remarks while commenting on the possibility of a phone conversation with the Russian leader, infohub.kz reports.
A few days earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said in an interview with the Vesti news agency that Vladimir Putin was ready to answer a possible call from Volodymyr Zelensky. According to Ushakov, the Russian leader has never refused dialogue.
"I think he will answer, of course. Putin has never once refused to talk," Ushakov said.
Today Zelensky himself commented on the likelihood of a phone call with Putin. In Zelensky's view, Russia could use such a call as a pretext to back out of further meetings.
Zelensky believes the conversation would be formal, and that instead of real steps to end the war he would once again have to listen to a "history lecture."
"We are not inviting Putin to Kyiv — first of all, they came to us in 2022 without an invitation. To invite them so that they don't come is destructive, just like inviting me to Moscow. It is simply spitting in the face of the whole world, which wants the war to end," Volodymyr Zelensky said.