War in Ukraine: A Putin-Zelensky meeting "possible" if the two countries reach "agreements"

A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is "possible" on the sole condition that Moscow and Kiev have reached "agreements" beforehand, the Kremlin indicated on Saturday, the day after the first direct peace talks between the two sides since 2022.

The Kremlin sets its conditions

"Such a meeting, the result of the work of both sides and the conclusion of agreements, is possible. But only following agreements between the two sides," said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

On Friday, the Ukrainian delegation proposed a summit between the two leaders to find a solution to the conflict, with Moscow saying it had "taken note." Such a meeting would be the first since Russia attacked its Ukrainian neighbor in February 2022. But as things stand, the positions of Moscow and Kyiv remain irreconcilable.

In addition to kyiv's non-membership in NATO, Vladimir Putin tirelessly calls for the demilitarization of Ukraine and for assurances that Russia will retain the Ukrainian territories annexed in 2022, in addition to Crimea, occupied since 2014.

More broadly, the Russian president is calling for a general overhaul of the security architecture in Europe, considering NATO's rapprochement with Russia's borders as an existential threat to his country.

A chasm between the two parties

Ukraine and its European allies firmly reject these claims, asserting that the Russian army, which still occupies nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, is waging an imperialist-style conflict in the former Soviet republic. The Ukrainian president has repeatedly demanded that Russian forces leave Ukrainian territory altogether.

Friday's talks in Istanbul, the first on peace since spring 2022, did not result in a ceasefire, as demanded by Kiev and its allies , but only in the announcement of a major prisoner exchange, a symbol of the gulf that separates the positions of the two parties at this stage.

As for further direct talks, Dmitry Peskov indicated on Saturday that they would only be possible once the prisoner exchange has been completed. "What remains to be done is what the delegations agreed on yesterday. This is, of course, primarily a matter of exchanging (prisoners in the format) 1,000 for 1,000," he insisted, also citing the "exchange" of conditions for each side with a view to a truce, which Moscow has nevertheless rejected several times in recent weeks.