Meeting between Putin and Zelensky at the G20 in Miami “is impossible”

“IT IS impossible,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said to the France-Presse news agency (AFP), thus rejecting a proposal from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

The spokesman for the Russian Presidency reiterated Moscow's demand for such a meeting to take place in the Russian capital after having declared earlier to the Russian state news agency The decision to move Vladimir Putin to Miami had not yet been taken.

“ We still don’t know if we’re going to Miami,” Peskov said.

In a German radio interview with Deutsche Welle, the Ukrainian President said he was available to meet with the Russian counterpart during the G20 summit in December.

Asked if he would meet Putin at that meeting if the two leaders were invited, Zelensky replied: “Yes, of course. We have to go. We must meet, talk and make decisions”.

“It is not the words that count. What I'm gonna tell him or what he wants to tell me doesn't matter. (...) Only the result counts”, he added.

Washington recently attempted to relaunch the long stagnant diplomatic efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, with the visit of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv last weekend.

Putin and American President Donald Trump also discussed the war last week in a telephone conversation “of extreme frankness,” said the Kremlin.

Zelensky stated in the interview that the visit of the US envoys was a “good sign” and that it was important that the duo had moved to both Kyiv and Moscow. “It is a mark of respect for our people,” he said.

The United States is holding the G20 presidency this year.

In early September, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was met at a G20 meeting in North Carolina, causing “malaise” among Ukraine’s European allies.

Russian diplomacy has already stated that Moscow will send some officials to a G20 meeting dedicated to energy in Houston next week.

Established in 1999, the G20 is a group formed by finance ministers and heads of central banks of the 19 largest economies in the world, plus the African Union and the European Union.