Putin claims Zelensky sought private meeting weeks before open letter urging direct peace talks

Vladimir Putin claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky asked him for a personal meeting through a Russian businessman — several weeks before Zelensky published an open letter proposing to end the war. Putin made the comments during a plenary session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Three weeks ago, Putin said, “a contact in the business world” told him he had been invited to Kyiv and offered a chance to “look and listen” to what was happening there. The businessman then went to Kyiv and met “the author of this letter” at the man’s residence, Putin said.

After returning, the businessman conveyed to Putin a verbal request from Zelensky for a meeting, the president said. At the plenary session, Putin repeated that he’s never said no to a meeting but doesn’t want to “keep pouring from one empty cup into another.”

Putin described what followed: ‘This was, I believe, on May 21. And on May 22, Ukrainian forces carried out a terrible terrorist strike on a college dormitory in the [self-declared] Luhansk People’s Republic, where children and teenagers were killed.” Putin said he asked the businessman what this meant — that Ukrainian leaders were asking for a meeting while committing such terrible crimes. The businessman replied that he had no explanation but was “getting calls right now” from Kyiv, and promised to get back to the Russian president. The two have not spoken since, Putin said. He did not name the businessman or say more.

On June 4, Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter in which he proposed that Vladimir Putin end the war through “direct engagement” and meet face-to-face. When the letter was published, Putin was speaking with foreign journalists at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had been informed of the letter and that the president would address it at the plenary session.

The only Russian businessman who participated in the Ukraine–Russia negotiations in 2022 was Roman Abramovich. The Financial Times reported that Abramovich had become Putin’s “trusted intermediary,” and that Zelensky had asked the U.S. to delay imposing sanctions on Abramovich. After Donald Trump succeeded Joe Biden as president, a new Kremlin representative took on the role — Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. He met repeatedly with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff (including in the U.S.), but he is not known to have visited Kyiv.