Zelensky says willing to meet Putin at G-20 ‘to make decisions’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says he is hoping for “results” if and when he meets with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in December.

BERLIN – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G-20 summit in December, as efforts intensify to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Washington is seeking to kick-start long-stalled negotiations to find a solution to the war, Europe’s deadliest since World War II, with US negotiators recently visiting Kyiv and Moscow, and President Donald Trump and Putin this week holding talks on the conflict over the phone.

The United States holds the 2026 presidency of the Group of 20 major economies (G-20), which comprises 19 countries, plus the European Union and the African Union, and culminates in a leaders’ summit in Miami in December.

Russia’s finance minister has already attended one G-20 meeting, causing discomfort among some of Ukraine’s allies, and a Russian diplomat said on Sept 12 Moscow will also send some officials to a G-20 energy meeting in Houston next week.

Asked whether he would be willing to meet Putin at the December summit if both leaders were invited, Zelensky told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle: “Yes, of course.

“We have to come. We have to meet, to speak, and make decisions,” he said. “It’s not about words. What I will tell him or what he wants to tell me, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Matters only result. Result matters. That’s it.”

Last weekend, US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Putin, and Trump also discussed the war earlier in the week in what the Kremlin termed an “extremely frank” and constructive hour-long phone call.

In the Deutsche Welle interview, which took place on Sept 11 in Canada, Zelensky said Witkoff and Kushner’s visit was a “good signal”, and it was important the pair visited Kyiv as well as Moscow.

“It’s respect to our people,” he said.

Zelensky has also announced he plans to meet Trump in late September, as Washington pushes for fresh face-to-face talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Asked about Ukraine’s position ahead of possible negotiations, Zelensky responded: “Ukraine now is much… stronger than last year on the battlefield.”

Russia was sustaining heavy battlefield losses, paying a “big price” for “very slow moves on the battlefield”, he said. “That’s why we think that we now have a good position for negotiations.”

Kyiv has said the talks could happen as early as September, but the Kremlin on Sept 7 said it was “too early” to discuss a venue or dates.

Several previous rounds of negotiations have failed. Trust between the sides is low, and there is no sign that Moscow or Kyiv have shifted their positions.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have escalated long-range strikes on each other in recent months, leading to the highest civilian death toll since the early days of the war.

Zelensky also repeated his call for Ukraine’s allies to provide more interceptor missiles to fend off Russian air attacks.

“Russia produces today 140 ballistic missiles per month. So, according to the rules of NATO, if you want to destroy 140, you need 280. You will never have 280 missiles per month,” he said.

It was a “huge challenge” to have 100 a month, he said. AFP