REUTERS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's aide Andriy Yermak has said Ukraine did not send any requests to Russia for a meeting between the Ukrainian leader and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, when both were in Israel.

"No meeting with Putin took place in Israel. Media reports and certain statements by [Putin's aide] Ushakov do not correspond to reality. There were no requests for a meeting," he said, according to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.

Read alsoNo meeting held between Zelensky and Putin in Jerusalem – Russian media

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Yermak said Zelensky had given Holocaust survivors the invitations of his delegation to the World Holocaust Forum not because of Putin who was scheduled to deliver a speech there. According to Yermak, the topic of the Holocaust is close to the president and he was deeply touched that the people who had survived that tragedy could not be present at the forum, so he decided to allocate the seats to them.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said a request had come from Kyiv for a meeting with the Russian leader in Israel. Later, it became known the meeting did not take place.

On January 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said if necessary, a meeting could be arranged for Putin and Zelensky.