Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday questioned the purpose of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but offered to host a summit in Moscow, during wide-ranging remarks at a press conference in Beijing.
Putin’s remarks come at the end of President Trump’s two-week deadline for a bilateral meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as a means to end Russia’s nearly four-year war against Ukraine.
“Does it make sense to meet with the current administration [Zelensky]?” Putin asked, repeating a common argument from the Kremlin that it views the Ukrainian leader as illegitimate.
“We could do — I’ve never refused to do that if that leads to some positive outcomes,” he continued, according to a translation from Sky News.
“Donald [Trump] asked me if it was possible. I said yes, it was possible. I said let him come to Moscow.”
Trump called for Putin and Zelensky to meet directly, following a high-profile meeting in Anchorage, Alaska between the U.S. president and Russian leader on August 15. Trump had said a meeting could happen within two weeks and then offered a tri-lateral summit he would attend to help settle the war.
While Trump boasted on the campaign trail that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine within one day, the president has admitted that finding a solution has been harder to achieve than he originally believed.
Trump has repeatedly threatened unspecified actions to force Putin to agree to a ceasefire, but has so far declined to take any punitive actions toward Russia in his second term.
