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Zelenskyy to Putin: “Let’s meet”, but Moscow holds back: “We need an agreement”
In a video message posted to Facebook, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for meaningful peace and security talks with Moscow “immediately.” “This is the only chance for Russia to reduce the damage caused by its mistakes,” Zelenskyy said after his invasion. “It’s time to meet, it’s time to speak, it’s time to restore territorial integrity and justice to Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be so great that it will take the country several generations to recover,” he added. But before a meeting is accepted, it is necessary to agree on a text of the treaty, said Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, quoted by TASS. “I’m definitely not ready to comment on this. All I can say is that the negotiating delegations need to prepare and agree on the text of a treaty before even mentioning a meeting between the two heads of state. The text is then to be initialed by the foreign ministers and approved by the governments. Only after that – concludes Medinsky – will it be possible to discuss the possibility of a summit ». Earlier, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy could be arranged after work on the settlement document was completed. According to him, such a meeting would be possible in the next two weeks.
Zelenskyy: “The Russians thought they would come to Ukraine like in 2014. Now we know how to defend ourselves.”