Zelensky Discusses Potential Meeting With Putin Volodymyr Zelensky is chasing a meeting; Vladimir Putin is dodging the invitation. Between Washington, Paris, and the G7, Ukraine’s president is trying to turn global stagecraft into leverage — and expose Moscow when it won’t come to the table.

Zelensky’s push: “any format,” any venue

From Kyiv’s side, the message is maximal flexibility and maximum visibility. Zelensky has said he discussed with Donald Trump “the possibility of organizing a meeting with Vladimir Putin in the United States,” in a format that would make it “significantly more difficult” for the Russian side to refuse talks. His office frames this as part of a broader strategy: Ukraine “offered Russia a meeting ‘in any format,’ where real decisions could be made to end the war,” but, according to Zelensky, Putin “does not agree.”

The same logic underpins his G7 gambit. Zelensky told reporters that Kyiv signaled it was “ready to meet with Putin during [the] G7, because Trump is there and Macron is there, so Europeans plus America,” calling it “a very good opportunity to meet all together.” A Ukrainian source said the proposal went through “intermediaries, diplomats, and intelligence,” yet “there was no clear response from the Russian Federation.”

Moscow’s posture: silence and dismissal

While Zelensky publicly stacks the deck with Western leaders as witnesses, Russia’s answer so far is either non‑response or froideur. Kyiv says “Russia demonstrated again that they are not ready to speak” over the G7 idea. Putin, for his part, has previously said he sees “no point” in meeting Zelensky at this time, even after receiving multiple overtures through channels including an open letter and an intermediary businessman.

In practice, Zelensky is trying to turn diplomatic invitations into a test: if he’ll meet “in any format,” and Putin won’t meet in front of Trump, Macron, and the G7, the Kremlin’s refusal itself becomes the message.