Will Putin meet with Zelenskyy to end the Ukraine war? It is easier said than done

It’s been over 1,500 days of fighting between Ukraine and Russia. Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, in an open letter posted as the Russian leader was speaking to the media at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. In the letter, Zelenskyy said it would be “wrong to simply wait” until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US’s attention once more, adding peace could only come “through direct engagement between” Ukraine and Russia.

In response, the Kremlin stated that Zelenskyy can come to Moscow any time if he wishes to hold talks — a proposal that the Ukrainian leader preemptively ruled out in his letter. So, will Putin and Zelenskyy actually meet face-to-face? Here’s why it may never happen, and if it does, here is what to expect. What has Zelenskyy written in his letter to Putin?

A day after Ukrainian drones hit Saint Petersburg, as Putin’s home city hosted a major international economic forum this week, Zelenskyy published an open letter addressed to his Russian counterpart. In it, the Ukrainian proposed a face-to-face meeting in a renewed bid to end the war. He also called for a full ceasefire for the duration of the proposed negotiations. This marks the first time Zelenskyy has publicly addressed Putin directly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “I am proposing a meeting,” wrote Ukraine’s Zelenskyy.

He added, “For 26 years, your time in power has completely changed the agenda of relations between Ukraine and Russia. From discussions about trade and other civilian matters, our nations have moved to talking almost exclusively about strikes and losses. “You have spent nearly half of your 26 years in power in Russia waging war against Ukraine.” This marks the first time Zelenskyy has publicly addressed Putin directly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. AFP The Ukrainian further added, “We have seen intelligence reports showing that you are now considering plans to continue the war into 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope ballistic missiles will achieve for you what everything else has failed to achieve.

You want to draw Belarus even deeper into this war, and we are now forced to prepare for that as well. We see that you are trying to orchestrate something around Transnistria. Your propagandists threaten, in one way or another, every country neighbouring Russia. Do you really want to go through all of this? “The choice is yours now. “Enough of war.” In his letter, he noted that neither leader would meet in the other’s nation, and hence it would make most sense to meet in a third country. “There are countries that have traditionally hosted leaders to resolve issues of war and peace.

Switzerland, Türkiye, and the countries of the Arab world – many are able and willing to host such a meeting. It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be. I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting.” Zelenskyy also called on Europe and the United States to be a part of these discussions, writing: “We also believe that the United States must be part of the process.

This is what could help shape a new security architecture for our part of the world.” Reacting to the letter, US President Donald Trump said he was “glad that they’re maybe talking about meeting”. “I think we had a lot to do with it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it would be great if they met. They should — get it done.” Russia has also acknowledged that they have received Zelenskyy’s letter, but Putin has not yet seen it. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Zelenskyy can come to Moscow any time if he wishes to hold talks. “President Putin has said that if Zelenskyy wants to talk, he can come to Moscow and do so,” Peskov said.

But, will Putin ever agree to a meeting with Zelenskyy? It is very unlikely that the Russian leader would meet with his Ukrainian counterpart. This is because Putin consistently questions the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy. Russian officials rarely use Zelenskyy’s name, preferring to refer to “the Kyiv regime”.

In fact, speaking to foreign journalists in Saint Petersburg just before Zelenskyy’s appeal was published, Putin repeated his frequent questioning of the Ukrainian leader’s legitimacy. He said the question of whether Zelenskyy was Ukraine’s legitimate leader needed “analysis”, after his initial five-year term expired in 2024. Russia's President Vladimir Putin consistently questions the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy. File image/AFP Moreover, Moscow is even accused by Ukraine of having dispatched kill teams to target Zelenskyy during the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Zelenskyy survived more than a dozen assassination attempts in the first year of the full-scale invasion. Orysia Lutsevich, the director of Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme, further notes that Putin has accused Zelenskyy of being a Nazi.

Hence, meeting with him would be a huge reversal in tone that would be tough to explain to the Russian people, she told CNN. Other experts note that Putin avoids a direct meeting with Zelenskyy not only for political reasons, but also to avoid appearing willing to compromise. For him, the conflict is less about negotiating with Ukraine and more about confronting the West. What can we expect if Putin and Zelenskyy do come face to face?

However, if Putin agrees to meet with Zelenskyy, what can one expect? Their 2019 meeting may provide a hint. That meeting came in the backdrop of the fighting in the region of Donbas, where Ukrainian troops had been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014. The two of them travelled to Paris in December 2019 for the Normandy Format Summit — an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian, and Ukrainian diplomats after the conflict in the Donbas began.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attending a meeting on Ukraine at the Elysee Palace in Paris. File image/AFP Zelenskyy was only a few months into his presidency after beating Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire confectionery magnate and former Ukrainian foreign minister. That meeting ended in failure. Putin and Zelenskyy talked past each other and could not reach an agreement on the sequencing of key parts of the peace plan.

Additionally, Zelenskyy wanted a lasting ceasefire and the securing of Ukraine’s border with Russia, in place before proceeding with regional elections on devolving autonomy to the regions. Putin was adamant that the elections come first. There was also the fact that Putin refused to acknowledge that Russia was a party to the conflict.

As a result, the Normandy talks stalled. Most experts believe that if Putin and Zelenskyy did meet face-to-face, it would be a repeat of the Normandy talks, as neither side is willing to bend. With inputs from agencies