Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking with reporters on Friday, January 30, responded to repeated proposals from the Russian side that he travel to Moscow for talks. He said such invitations indicate a lack of serious intent to end the war.
“It’s the same as meeting with Putin in Kyiv. I can just as well invite him to Kyiv - let him come. I publicly invite him, if he dares, of course,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader added he is ready for any leader-level format if it truly helps bring the war closer to an end. “But if someone doesn’t want to meet and for some reason can’t say so directly, then you hear these invitations to Moscow,” he noted.
Zelensky also ruled out talks on Belarusian territory: “In Moscow and in Belarus this is simply impossible, and it’s absolutely clear why - because one of these states is the aggressor that started and is waging war against us, killing us, and the other country is its partner in these actions.”
Speaking to reporters, Zelensky said there were no direct agreements between Ukraine and Russia to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. He said it was a U.S. initiative, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier said he personally asked Vladimir Putin not to strike Kyiv and other cities, and the Russian president agreed.
Ukraine supports the initiative but would respond in kind if Russia launches new strikes on Ukrainian energy, Zelensky said. “If Russia doesn’t hit our energy — generating or otherwise — we won’t hit their energy. I think that’s the answer the U.S. expected,” he noted.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, confirmed Trump’s request to Russia’s president to refrain from strikes on Kyiv until February 1. Peskov said Putin agreed because it was “a personal request from Trump.”
At the meeting with journalists, Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine is ready for compromises to end the war — but only if they do not call the country’s territorial integrity into question. Ukraine is not prepared to cede either the parts of Donbas controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces or the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant occupied by Russian troops, he emphasized.
The least problematic solution, in Zelensky’s view, is “we stay where we are.” “We believe that tough demands on Ukraine are not a compromise. They are a change to the country’s territorial integrity,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelensky also said the date and location of the next meeting between delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States, scheduled for February 1 in Abu Dhabi, may change. “In our view, something is happening in the situation between America and Iran. And these things could probably affect the date,” Ukraine’s President said.
