Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to travel to Moscow for peace talks and instead challenged him to come to Kyiv.
"He can come to Kyiv," Zelenskyy said in a teaser released on September 6 for a yet-to-be fully aired interview with ABC News. "I can't go to Moscow when my country's under missiles, under attack, each day. I can't go to the capital of this terrorist."
The Ukrainian president added that Putin's offer was intended to "postpone the meeting," and that the Russian leader was "playing games with the United States."
Putin had earlier downplayed the value of meeting with the Ukrainian president, but also suggested that he would be willing to meet with him, but only on home soil.
"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," Putin said during an economic forum in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on September 5.
The exchange comes after Putin offered a blunt message to Kyiv's Western partners after they pledged a post-war "reassurance force" to bolster their ally, saying that any of their troops deployed to Ukraine would be targeted by Russia.
"If any troops appear there, especially now while fighting is ongoing, we assume that they will be legitimate targets," Putin said.
The warning is the latest in a series of uncompromising statements from the Russian leader that signals efforts to jumpstart negotiations for a peace deal around the war in Ukraine have stalled since a summit in Alaska between Putin and US President Donald Trump last month.
Following Putin's comments, Russia fired another barrage of military drones overnight at Ukraine.
The latest round of regular strikes on Ukraine came in the form of 91 Russian drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that it consisted of 18 strikes across eight locations in the country. No casualties have been reported.
Putin Resists Compromising On Ukraine War Positions
This follows a series of high-profile diplomatic events in China earlier this week that gave Putin the valuable optics of showing he's not isolated on the global stage, despite his break with the West following Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
At both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on September 1 and at a highly-choreographed Chinese military parade on September 3, the Russian president was seen shaking hands and sharing smiles with various world leaders, including notable face time with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Speaking in Beijing following the parade, Putin said that Russia is willing to fight to achieve all its objectives if Ukraine does not agree to a deal.
He also hinted that Western security guarantees after a future peace deal would not relate to the areas in eastern Ukraine whose inhabitants had voted to join Russia -– a reference to widely criticized elections held in the aftermath of their occupation and annexation by Russian forces.
Amid Putin’s diplomatic forays in China this week, Ukraine and Europe held their own meetings focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv, and making sure that the Ukrainian Army is strong enough to prevent another invasion.
Trump Expresses New Frustrations
Following the week of fast-paced diplomatic engagement, Trump expressed new frustrations with efforts to broker peace.
Speaking at the first dinner held in the newly renovated Rose Garden at the White House on September 5, Trump said he underestimated the task of stopping the war in Ukraine.
"The war that I thought would probably be the easiest was the most difficult: that of Russia and Ukraine," he said. "I thought it would be easiest because of the relationship with President Putin... It didn't matter. It ended up being probably the most difficult."
Earlier that day, the US president appeared to be frustrated with both Russia and India, who he tried press with tariffs to stop buying large quantities of Russian oil.
"Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote in a September 5 social media post accompanying a photo of the three countries' leaders together at the SCO summit in China this week.
The White House imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on Indian imports in late August after it accused New Delhi of fueling Moscow's deadly attacks on Ukraine by becoming Russia’s top oil customer since the invasion.
Trump has since walked back his criticism of India, telling reporters that while he remains “very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil,” he didn’t think that the United States had lost India to China.
Modi later said on September 6 that New Delhi and Washington still shared "very positive" ties.
How Trump will react to Putin’s latest positions remains to be seen.
He previously said that he is "very disappointed" in Putin and the US president has been frustrated at his inability to convince Russia and Ukraine to reach an end to their war and has previously set ultimatums and deadlines, including the threat of further sanctions if Russia won’t strike a peace deal.
New movement could come on the sanctions front after European Council President Antonio Costa said that the European Union is sending a delegation to Washington to prepare new joint sanctions against Russia.
“We are working with the United States and other like-minded partners to increase our pressure through further direct and secondary sanctions,” Costa said at a press conference in Ukraine on September 5.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the bloc’s 19th package of sanctions against Russia since Moscow's full-scale invasion would be unveiled in early September.
