April 22 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin can only meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the purpose of finalising agreements on the conflict, Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday.
Peskov’s comments on state television, reported by Russian news agencies, came after Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine asked Turkey to host a meeting between between the two leaders to reinvigorate stalling peace talks.
“The main thing is the goal of this meeting. Why should they meet? Putin has said he is ready for a meeting in Moscow at any moment,” the news agencies quoted Peskov as saying.
“The main thing is that there should be a reason to meet, and the main thing is that the meeting should be productive. And it can only be for the purpose of finalising agreements.”
Peskov said any such meeting required careful preparation and “political will from the Kyiv regime, And for now, we see no such political will.”
He said Russia’s main aim in its military drive, known as a “special military operation” was to ensure its vital interests and guard against Ukrainian attacks on energy and other targets which he described as “the danger of terrorism from the Kyiv region”.
He said Russia was ready for any new talks on a settlement to the war with U.S. negotiators “even tomorrow”.
In his earlier comments, Sybiha said Kyiv had asked Turkey to host a meeting between the two leaders but did not say how Ankar had responded to the request.
The Turkish presidency said President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in a meeting that Ankara was making efforts to revive negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring together the leaders of the warring sides.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)
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