Putin ready to meet Zelensky, Kremlin official says — but there's a catch

Prefer on Google by Abbey Fenbert Russian President Vladimir Putin in an undisclosed location, Russia, on March 30, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov / Pool / AFP / Getty Images) Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on April 22. On the same day, Zelensky called for the resumption of trilateral peace talks among Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. Negotiations to end the war in Ukraine have stalled out as the U.S. shifts focus to waging war against Iran . While Russia has made it clear that resuming dialogue is not a top priority, Peskov said Putin would meet with Zelensky — under certain conditions. "Putin has stated that he is ready to meet in Moscow at any moment," Peskov told the Russian news outlet Vesti. "The key is that there must be a reason to meet — that the meeting serves a purpose — and, crucially, that it be productive; it can only serve the purpose of finalizing agreements." The Kremlin's conditions for a Putin-Zelensky summit — a Moscow setting to "finalize" a prepared deal — indicate that Russia has little interest in a diplomatic process beyond Ukraine's capitulation. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out Moscow as a venue for peace talks. "We're ready for any format, at any time," Zelensky told said on April 22. "We are not afraid to meet at any time in any country, except for Russia and Belarus — we would like to emphasize this once again. I am confident that the trilateral meeting should resume." Putin, meanwhile, has refused to meet the Ukrainian president in third countries that are not involved in the war, such as Turkey. He has instead invited Zelensky to Moscow — less a diplomatic overture than a tactic to delay discussions. Following Putin's Alaska summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2025, Trump said he was working to facilitate a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, though the Kremlin later denied that any agreement had been reached. Trump later claimed that Putin avoids meeting Zelensky because "he doesn't like him." The two leaders have not held face-to-face talks since the start of the full-scale war, meeting previously during the Normandy format negotiations in 2019. Peskov's latest comments come as Kyiv has been urging the U.S. and Russia to return to the negotiating table — without results. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier in April that talks with Ukraine are not a priority for Moscow. "At this point, the issue of resuming negotiations is not our top priority. We haven't forced negotiations on anyone," he said. "We have always operated on the principle that if our partner is ready, we're ready."