Kremlin calls Zelensky's readiness for Putin talks 'empty words'
World
Russian President Putin last week had ruled out speaking directly with Zelensky.
MOSCOW (AFP) – The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he was ready for direct talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as "empty words".
Talk of a negotiated end to the nearly three-year conflict has risen with Donald Trump -- who has pledged to end the fighting -- back in the White House and Ukraine's troops struggling on the battlefield in the east.
Asked how he would feel if he sat opposite Putin at a negotiating table, Zelensky told British journalist Piers Morgan in an interview published Tuesday: "If that is the only set-up in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this set-up."
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists: "So far, this cannot be seen as anything but empty words."
Putin last week said Moscow would hold talks with Ukraine but ruled out speaking directly with Zelensky.
A decree signed by Zelensky in 2022 rules out direct talks with Putin -- something Peskov pointed to on Wednesday and that Moscow regularly highlights when asked if it is ready for talks with Kyiv.
The Kremlin spokesman also reiterated Russia's frequent claim that Zelensky is not a legitimate president, as his five-year mandate in office expired last year.
Under martial law, Ukraine has a ban on holding elections.
"Zelensky has big problems de jure (legally) in Ukraine. But even despite that we remain ready for talks," Peskov said, saying that the "reality on the ground" meant that Kyiv had to "be the first to demonstrate openness and interest in such talks."
'CLEAR ULTIMATUM'
After the interview, Zelensky posted comments Wednesday on social media saying that talks with Putin in themselves would be a "compromise" for Ukraine and its allies.
"Putin is a murderer and a terrorist. This is a fact," he said, in comments live-translated into English.
"And if our allies believe that diplomacy is the way forward, let's be honest: isn't even a single conversation with Putin a compromise? Talking to a murderer is a compromise for Ukraine and the entire civilised world."
Zelensky also said Putin "will only understand the need to end this war if he is given a clear ultimatum" by the United States, and that the "power to shape that peace depends on President Trump".
Peskov on Wednesday said contact with the new US administration had "intensified" but gave no indication of when a possible meeting or call between Putin and Trump could take place.
Peskov also slammed Zelensky for suggesting that Ukraine should be allowed to have a nuclear deterrent if it is unable to join NATO.
Zelensky had said Ukraine would need an alternative "package" of protection, including nuclear weapons, if it cannot join NATO or the process drags on.
"Let's put it this way: give us nuclear weapons back, give us strong missile systems, partners, help us fund a million-man army," Zelensky said.
Peskov said that "such statements are bordering on madness", citing international rules on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
'VERY DIFFICULT'
Kyiv has struggled to hold back Russian forces and Zelensky has conceded that it is unlikely his army will be able to recapture territory seized by Russia.
Moscow on Wednesday said its troops took two more Ukrainian villages in the country's east and northeast.
But Zelensky called Ukraine's hold of Russian territory in its western Kursk region "important" in terms of any future negotiations.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, he said Ukraine's shock offensive into the region, launched last August, was a "very important operation".
Putin said Wednesday that the situation in the Kursk region was "very difficult", in a meeting with the local governor over support for locals displaced or who had suffered material losses in the Ukrainian attack.
Discontent has been building there, with a Russian woman whose elderly parents disappeared in the Ukrainian incursion telling AFP that the authorities needed to set-up a humanitarian "corridor" for Russians to return from Ukrainian-held territory.
Both sides also announced an exchange of captured soldiers -- with 150 Russians and 150 Ukrainians returning home via Belarus in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates, despite ongoing hostilities.
A Russian missile attack on the coastal Ukrainian town of Pivdenne on Wednesday evening killed a 39-year-old local and wounded a 19-year-old man, Odesa's regional prosecutors said.
