Kremlin: there are no plans for Putin and Zelensky meeting
The Kremlin is currently not preparing for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, TASS reports.
According to Peskov, the words of Zelensky that Ukrainians and Russians are not “same people”, "do not fit into the process of preparing the meeting" of the leaders.
"And, by the way, if we abstract from such unsuccessful statements from our point of view, there is no substantive preparation and no steps are taken in this regard," Putin's spokesman said.
Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukrainian Presidential Administration, called Peskov’s statements a "ploy".
"These are trivial psychological ploys of the Russians," Podolyak said in a comment to RBC-Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has said that he does not refuse to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, but there is no sense in this meeting. According to Putin, Zelensky has placed Ukraine under external management.