“Impossible.” That was the Kremlin’s one-word answer on 13 September 2026 to the idea of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky sitting down together at the G20 summit in Miami.
The offer had come a day earlier. In an interview published on Saturday, Zelensky said he was ready to travel to the summit in the United States and meet Putin, provided the Russian leader attended too. Speaking to German journalists, he put it plainly: if both men were invited, he would be ready for talks. “We have to come. We have to meet, to speak, and make decisions. It’s not about words,” he said. Only results mattered, in his view.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments to AFP that Ukrainska Pravda relayed, shut the door at once. Putin was prepared to meet Zelensky in Moscow and nowhere else. Asked whether the Kremlin would consider another venue, Peskov answered: “There is a readiness to meet him in Moscow.” Deutsche Welle reported the same line, adding that peace talks could only take place in the Russian capital. DW analyst Konstantin Eggert read the refusal bluntly. “Putin does not want to meet Zelenskyy as an equal,” he said, “so essentially that means that Putin wants to continue the war.”
A summit Putin may skip anyway
There was no official confirmation that Putin would go to the G20 summit, scheduled for December, in the first place.
Zelensky argued that Ukraine is much stronger on the battlefield than a year earlier, and that this makes the present moment a favourable one to open negotiations.
The exchange came after a busy week of shuttle diplomacy. US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had visited both Moscow and Kyiv the previous weekend, and Washington keeps pressing for direct Russia-Ukraine talks. On 12 September Kushner told the YES security forum in Kyiv, by video link, that the only missing piece of a deal was Ukraine’s consent to give up territory within the boundaries Putin demands. The same day Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described Russia’s invitation to Zelensky to visit Moscow as “a gesture of goodwill”. He said Russia stays open to talks but would not stop fighting while they run.
The Kremlin had already signalled its caution. On 7 September it called it “too early” to discuss where or when any meeting might happen, even though the Ukrainian side had suggested talks could begin as soon as September. Kyiv has proposed a personal meeting on neutral ground several times in recent years. Moscow has each time offered only Moscow.
Sources
- Putin rejects Zelenskyy's G20 talks offer
- Kremlin rejects Putin-Zelenskyy meeting at G20 summit in Miami | Ukrainska Pravda
