Putin Rejects Zelenskyy’s Face-To-Face Meeting, Says He Sees No Point

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected an offer from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a face-to-face meeting, saying at the St Petersburg economic forum that he sees “no point” in such talks.

“Il presidente russo risponde alla lettera aperta del leader di Kiev: "Non vedo il senso”

Adnkronos

Putin insisted Russia will achieve its war goals in Ukraine, including seizing all of the eastern Donbas region, and he said he refused to use Zelenskyy’s name, referring to him only as its author.

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Zelenskyy’s open letter, published on Thursday, proposed a meeting in a third country such as Switzerland or Turkey and said Ukraine was ready for a full ceasefire while negotiations took place.

Hours before the forum opened on Wednesday, Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg’s oil terminal, sending black smoke billowing into the sky, and Putin said his territorial demands were unchanged.

In response, Zelenskyy said Putin’s rejection showed the Kremlin had “no wish to end the conflict,” calling it “A weak response” in his nightly video address.

Putin framed Zelenskyy’s proposal as an obstacle to a meeting, telling the forum, “Was it a way to create the conditions for a face-to-face meeting or a way not to set up a face-to-face meeting? I think it was the second,” and calling the letter “rude.”

Zelenskyy responded that Putin’s rejection showed the Kremlin had “no wish to end the war,” and he added in his nightly video address that “Everyone heard the response. A weak response,”.

Al Jazeera

The Hill reported that Zelenskyy had penned an open letter asking Putin to meet on neutral ground to negotiate an end to the more than four-year war, while Putin signaled he did not view the offer as genuine.

CBS News said Putin described Zelenskyy’s open letter proposing the meeting as “boorish,” and it linked Putin’s stance to a May 22 drone attack by Ukraine on a college dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region that Moscow said killed 21 and wounded scores of others.

In Washington, The Hill said the U.S. House passed a measure authorizing funding for military aid to Ukraine and additional sanctions on Russia, with 18 Republicans and one independent joining Democrats to advance the legislation.

Putin tied any path to talks to territorial and long-term terms, repeating that Russia controlled all of the Luhansk region and more than 85% of Donetsk, and demanding Ukraine give up all of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

“- Published Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not see any point in meeting Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian leader requested face-to-face talks over ending the war between the two nations”

BBC

The Guardian said Zelenskyy’s latest peace offer won approval from key allies, including Donald Trump and France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet Macron, UK prime minister Keir Starmer, and German chancellor Friedrich Merz in London.

RTE.ie reported Putin told the forum, “Military actions will end some day, we assume. Without a doubt, they will end once we have achieved the goals we have set for ourselves,” and he added, “Let the experts work, develop some solutions, and then we can meet.”

The Guardian also said Ukraine’s drones hit five Russian cargo ships in the occupied southern ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk, and in the Sea of Azov overnight on Thursday, while Russia said five sailors from Azerbaijan were killed.

Beyond battlefield demands, Putin argued that Western sanctions and blocking of Russia’s sovereign reserves had “irreversibly impacted the standing of international currencies, the dollar and the euro,” and he said the economy shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2026.