Kremlin rebuffs Zelensky's call for three-way meeting
MOSCOW
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (L) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky review a military honor guard during an official welcome ceremony in front of the Chancellery in Berlin on May 28, 2025.
The Kremlin on Wednesday rebuffed a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as Kiev seeks to force Moscow to halt its three-year-long invasion.
Moscow said any meeting involving Russian President Putin and Zelensky would only happen after "concrete agreements" had been struck between negotiators from each side.
Putin rejected calls to meet Zelensky in Türkiye earlier this month.
The Kremlin leader has repeatedly said he does not see Zelensky as a legitimate leader and called for him to be toppled.
U.S. President Trump, meanwhile, has expressed frustration at both men for not yet striking a deal to end the war.
The two sides have traded waves of massive aerial attacks in recent weeks, with Ukraine firing almost 300 drones at Russia overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
"If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don't mind. I am ready for any format," Zelensky said yesterday.
The Ukrainian leader said he was "ready" for a "Trump-Putin-me" meeting.
Asked about Zelensky's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Such a meeting should be the result of concrete agreements between the two [Ukrainian and Russian] delegations."
The first direct peace talks in more than three years between the sides in Istanbul earlier this month failed to yield a breakthrough.
Trump over the weekend called Putin "crazy" after a massive Russian barrage killed at least 13 people across Ukraine.
And on May 27, he went on blasting at the Russian leader.
"What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
