Volodymyr Zelensky has responded ironically to Vladimir Putin’s challenge to travel to Moscow for talks.
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While the Russian president continues to refuse a direct meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, he has invited Zelensky to travel to the Russian capital. During his stay in New York, where the UN General Assembly was in session, several pro-government Russian journalists addressed the Ukrainian president as he walked past them.
“Volodymyr Oleksandrovich, when are we going to Moscow?” one of the journalists asked him. Zelensky responded briefly and ironically: “I’ll go there by rocket”!
Later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had not understood Zelensky’s response as ruling out the possibility of his visiting the Russian capital. “It did not seem to me that he said he would not come. I did not hear anything like that,” Peskov said. He added that “Zelensky is making many statements as part of the General Assembly proceedings.”
The last face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin took place in Paris in December 2019, during Normandy Format talks mediated by France and Germany. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the two leaders have not held direct negotiations.
On May 16, 2025, Zelensky invited Putin to Istanbul for talks and proposed that the meeting be trilateral, with the participation of US President Donald Trump, as part of efforts to achieve peace. Putin did not attend and instead sent a delegation led by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky.
After meeting Putin in Alaska in August 2025, Trump said he was trying to mediate a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. However, he added that Putin was avoiding meeting Zelensky because “he does not like him”.
