Zelenskyy Challenges Putin To 'Come To Kyiv,' As Russian Drones Strike The Capital

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected an offer from Russia's Vladimir Putin to travel to Moscow for peace talks and instead challenged him to come to Kyiv, even as Russia continued to pound the Ukrainian capital with drone strikes.

""He can come to Kyiv," Zelenskyy told ABC News on September 6.

"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."

SEE ALSO: Putin Warns Against Foreign Troops In Ukraine As Europe Tries To Finalize 'Reassurance Force'

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.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian air defenses were active late on September 6 repelling numbers of Russian drones over Kyiv, while drone alerts were also sounded in Ukraine's Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhya regions.

Ukrainian authorities also reported an apparent change in tactics by Russian forces near the strategic and long-fought-over Donetsk region city of Pokrovsk.

A Ukrainian unit responsible for Pokrovsk said a force of Russian marines is attempting to penetrate the city at various points in small groups, seeking out Ukrainian artillery sites and drone operators.

Russian forces, using tanks and armored vehicles, also appear to be trying to encircle Pokrovsk in preparation for a later assault on the city, which had a prewar population of some 60,000 but now is mainly in ruins.

"According to available information, Russia is planning to deploy its troops in the Donetsk region for a so-called 'decisive breakthrough,'" the Ukrainian unit wrote on social media.

Zelenskyy has warned over the past two weeks that Russia is organizing forces for a major autumn offensive.

The exchanges come after Putin offered a blunt message to Kyiv's Western partners after they pledged a postwar "reassurance force" to bolster their ally, saying that any of their troops deployed to Ukraine would be targeted by Russia.

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"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.

Putin Resists Compromising

This follows a series of high-profile diplomatic events in China 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.

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Speaking in Beijing, Putin said 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.

SEE ALSO: Xi, Putin, And Kim Give Show Of Unity At China's Military Parade

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.

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"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."

Ukrainian Soldier Tells Of Being Left For Dead By Russian Captors

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 the European Union is sending a delegation to Washington next week 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 told a news 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.

With reporting by dpa