Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will not travel to Moscow to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. This was stated by the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Head of the Kiev delegation in the contact group on Donbass Alexey Reznikov.
On the air of Savik Shuster’s Freedom of Speech program, Reznikov said that Russia is allegedly an aggressor country, therefore a meeting in Moscow is impossible.
In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister expressed the opinion that, first of all, in the event of negotiations between Zelensky and Putin, the topic of Donbass will be raised, and then the restoration of bilateral relations.
“It seems to me a rather strange proposal,” Reznikov said, adding that if the meeting with the president does take place, then representatives of Germany and France should also be present. Thus, the full composition of the Normandy format should be assembled.
On April 20, Zelensky offered to meet with Putin “anywhere” in Donbass. In response, the Russian leader noted that he is ready to receive Zelensky at any time in Moscow, despite everything Kiev has done to spoil bilateral relations. Putin stressed that he is ready to discuss the restoration of ties between Kiev and Moscow, but if Zelensky wants to talk about Donbass, he should turn to the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, and not third countries.
The statement of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Aleksey Reznikov on the impossibility of the visit of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky In Moscow, Senator Volodymyr Dzhabarov found it ridiculous. He noted Zelensky’s readiness to speak with Putin in Donbass.
“In general, the statement itself is ridiculous. What then is the difference between the meeting that Zelensky wanted to hold in Donbass with the “aggressor country”? That is, in the Donbass it is a country for negotiations, and in Moscow it will be an “aggressor country”, he said.
Dzhabarov clarified that in this case, the point is that Zelensky “will have nothing to say at this meeting with Putin.”
Kiev has been conducting a military operation against residents of Donbass who have refused to recognize the results of the coup d’etat since 2014. At the same time, Ukrainian politicians blame Russia for the current situation, considering it an “aggressor country”. Moscow has repeatedly noted that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict and called on Kiev to negotiate with the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass.