Zelensky says he offered to meet with Putin at the G7 summit. Putin did not respond.

Source: Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, Reuters reported. Zelensky made the remarks to journalists during a visit to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

“We gave message that we ​are ready to meet with Putin during [the] G7, because Trump is ⁠there and Macron is there, so Europeans plus America. This is a good, ​I think, very good opportunity to meet all together,” Zelensky told reporters. “Europe ​and the United States were agreed and Russia demonstrated again that they are not ready to speak.”

A source told the Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine that Ukraine had conveyed the proposal for a Zelensky-Putin meeting through several channels — via intermediaries, diplomats, and intelligence.

“There was no clear response from the Russian Federation,” the source said.

The G7 summit will take place from June 15 to 17 in France.

On the evening of June 4, Zelensky published an open letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, proposing a face-to-face meeting to negotiate an end to the war. The following day, speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said he saw no point in meeting with Zelensky at this time.

Putin also said that Zelensky had previously asked for a personal meeting through a Russian businessman — weeks before publishing the open letter. It later emerged that the businessman was Roman Abramovich.

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