Zelensky instructs chief of staff to arrange meeting with Putin / Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I indeed offered to meet in Donbas. The president of the Russian Federation confirmed his wish to meet, but in Moscow. I have instructed the head of the Office of the President to contact the Putin administration so that they could come to an agreement, find a venue or city where we could meet," Zelensky said during a trip to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on April 26.
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- In a televised address on April 20, 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to hold talks in Donbas.
- On April 22, 2021, Putin responded to the invitation by suggesting that Zelensky could discuss the Donbas issue with the "leaders" of the two self-proclaimed republics, the "LPR/DPR," adding that Moscow remained open for contact on any other issues.
- Ukraine's Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was looking into the offer to broker the talks between Zelensky and Putin.
- First President of independent Ukraine, Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas Leonid Kravchuk believes the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, should meet on the territory of a neutral country. It could be Finland or Switzerland, Kravchuk suggested.
