Kremlin: there will be no meeting between Putin and Zelensky if Ukraine insists on discussing Crimea
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the implementation of the Minsk agreements and agreements reached at the last summit of the Normandy Four, as well as bilateral relations. And if Ukraine insists on discussing the issue of Crimea, then there will be no meeting between Putin and Zelensky, said Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
"Discussion of Crimea is not possible. Therefore, such a formulation actually casts doubt on the hypothetical possibility of holding such a meeting, " RIA Novosti quoted Peskov as saying.
Peskov also stressed that Putin does not want to discuss "the issue of the intra-Ukrainian conflict", that is, the war in the Donbas.
On April 20, Zelensky offered Putin to meet anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbas.
In response, the Russian president said that Zelensky should first hold peace talks with the leaders of the the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and if he wants to talk about Russian-Ukrainian relations, he can come to Moscow at any time. Putin's representative then added that "Crimea is not the topic for discussion” between Ukraine and Russia.
On September 12, Zelensky's speaker Serhiy Nikiforov said that the Ukrainian President did not see the point in meeting with Putin without discussing Crimea.