Zelenskyy says he is willing to meet Putin at G20 in Miami

BERLIN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would be willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit in December, in an interview released on Saturday (Sep 12), as efforts intensify to end the conflict.

Washington is seeking to kick-start long-stalled negotiations to find a solution to the conflict, Europe's deadliest since World War II, with US negotiators recently visiting Kyiv and Moscow and President Donald Trump and Putin this week holding talks on the conflict over the phone.

The United States holds this year's presidency of the Group of 20 major economies, which comprises 19 countries plus the European Union and the African Union, and culminates in a leaders' summit in Miami in December.

Russia's finance minister has already attended one G20 meeting, causing discomfort among some of Ukraine's allies, and a Russian diplomat said Saturday that Moscow will also send some officials to a G20 energy meeting in Houston next week.

Asked whether he would be willing to meet Putin at the December summit if both leaders were invited, Zelenskyy told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle: "Yes, of course.

"We have to come. We have to meet, to speak, and make decisions.

"It's not about words. What I will tell him or what he wants to tell me, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Matters only result. Result matters. That's it."

Last weekend, US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Putin and Trump also discussed the war earlier in the week in what the Kremlin termed an "extremely frank" and constructive hour-long phone call.

DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS INTENSIFY

In the Deutsche Welle interview, which took place Friday in Canada, Zelenskyy said that Witkoff and Kushner's visit was a "good signal", and it was important the pair had visited Kyiv as well as Moscow.

"It's respect to our people," he said.

Zelenskyy has also announced he plans to meet Trump in late September, as Washington pushes for fresh face-to-face talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Asked about Ukraine's position ahead of possible negotiations, Zelenskyy responded: "Ukraine now is much more stronger than last year on the battlefield."

Russia was sustaining heavy battlefield losses, paying a "big price" for "very slow moves on the battlefield", he said.

"That's why we think that we have now good position for negotiations."

Kyiv has said the talks could happen as early as this month, but the Kremlin on Monday said it was "too early" to discuss a venue or dates.

Several previous rounds of negotiations have failed. Trust between the sides is low, and there is no sign that Moscow or Kyiv have shifted their positions.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have escalated long-range strikes on each other in recent months, leading to the highest civilian death toll since the early days of the war.

Zelenskyy also repeated his call for Ukraine's allies to provide more interceptor missiles to fend off Russian air attacks.

"Russia produces ... today 140 ballistic missiles per month. So, according to the rules of NATO, if you want to destroy 140, you need 280 ... You will never have 280 missiles per month," he said.