Reuters reported that on May 17, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but only if the two sides reached certain agreements.
Mr. Peskov affirmed that Russia always considers such a meeting a feasible one, but did not specify what agreements Moscow requires. The last meeting between the two leaders was in December 2019.
The spokesperson added: When signing documents agreed upon by the delegations, the key and basic thing for us is who will sign those documents from Ukraine.
Mr. Peskov made this statement in the context that Mr. Zelensky's term as President ended last year, but still cited martial law in Ukraine as a reason for not holding elections. Previously, President Putin has repeatedly questioned the legality of Zelensky's leadership role.
In the related developments, many media outlets expressed disappointment when the two leaders of Russia and Ukraine did not appear at the meeting in Istanbul ( Turkey), instead the representative delegations.
However, it is noteworthy that President Putin has not mentioned the possibility of meeting Mr. Zelensky in person since opening talks last weekend.
At that time, Mr. Putin only informed that Russia was committed to resuming direct talks with Ukraine on ending the conflict in Ukraine and proposed that direct discussions would begin from May 15 in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky made a challenging statement, expressing his desire to meet Mr Putin directly at the meeting in Istanbul, even criticizing the Russian president for not attending.
However, according to RT, meetings between the two leaders should only take place when the agreements have been agreed upon, at that time they will only meet to sign, without needing to continue negotiations.
