Kremlin Voices Openness to Trump Meeting, Pours Cold Water on Zelensky Meeting

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov voiced openness to a leader-level meeting between Washington and Moscow but poured cold water on a proposed meeting involving President Volodymyr Zelensky.Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is open to meeting US President Donald Trump, but argued that Zelensky should come to Moscow if the two are to meet face-to-face.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.“Speaking of a Russian-American meeting, the president is ready. Presidents Putin and Trump have indeed always emphasized their willingness to hold another meeting in their phone conversations if necessary,” Peskov said, as reported by Russian state media RIA Novosti.Peskov also called a meeting between Zelensky and Putin pointless without what he called “expert-level work,” without elaborating on what that means.The remarks came a day after Trump claimed that Putin is open to a meeting after his own meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.“[Putin will] meet. He’s willing to meet. He’d like to see the war end,” Trump said.Kyiv has repeatedly rebuffed Moscow’s proposal and offered third countries as potential venues, which Moscow rejected in return.Kremlin pours cold water on Washington’s trilateral proposalBy once again demanding that Zelensky come to Moscow, the capital of a warring nation, to meet Putin, the Kremlin is effectively rejecting Washington’s proposed trilateral meeting.The US has attempted to revive the peace talks by sending its two envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Kyiv and Moscow on a recent diplomatic visit. Other Topics of Interest Hungary-Ukraine Diplomatic Relations Strain Further as Magyar Likens C8 to Village Football Hungary’s earlier refusal to join Ukraine’s new C8 initiative prompted a public dispute between Prime Minister Péter Magyar and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. The talks yielded no visible results, save for more calls for a trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelensky and Putin.“You heard President Zelensky talk about trilateral negotiations, which we hope will be announced shortly. There were many other important, compelling ideas that we discussed in Moscow and that were presented here in Kyiv,” Witkoff said in Kyiv.“We believe cooperation is critical,” he added.Meanwhile, Kushner said he hoped to “very soon… achieve progress” on securing a trilateral meeting.“One thing Steve and I believe is productive is returning to a trilateral format. We’ve spoken to both sides, so hopefully very soon we will achieve progress on this matter,” Kushner said.The Kremlin also offhandedly snubbed Trump’s energy truce claim by calling it a “very good idea” after the US president claimed both Kyiv and Moscow had agreed to the idea.Putin is also reportedly planning to skip Trump’s upcoming G20 summit in December, with Peskov rejecting Zelensky’s call for a Zelensky-Putin meeting at the summit. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.