Zelensky Expresses Willingness to Meet with Putin

(MENAFN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed readiness Saturday to sit across from Russian President Vladimir Putin at a three-way summit involving the United States, cautioning that without such high-level engagement, the war risks dragging on indefinitely.

Speaking in an interview with media, Zelensky said a window exists for a leaders-level meeting between Ukraine, the U.S., and Russia — but only if Putin signals genuine willingness to participate. He set a rough timeline of six months for such an encounter to materialize.

However, Zelensky drew a firm line on venue, flatly ruling out Moscow or Belarus as possible host locations for any potential negotiations.

The Ukrainian leader also pointed to the U.S. midterm elections in November as a critical deadline, framing the coming months as a narrow but real opportunity to advance the peace process.

"If it is possible to achieve peace, we will have this window; we have it now," he said.

Earlier in the week, Zelensky had signaled that a fresh round of trilateral negotiations among the three parties is expected to convene in early March. That announcement followed the most recent round of talks, held in Geneva on Feb. 18, which concluded without any meaningful progress on the conflict's core sticking points.

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