Vladimir Putin rejected Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s offer for a face-to-face meeting on Thursday and said he saw no point in talks, shutting down the latest bid for direct leader-level diplomacy as the war grinds on. He also called Zelenskyy’s open letter rude and repeated that Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine.
The exchange matters now because Zelenskyy’s proposal was not a vague appeal. It called for a meeting in a third country such as Switzerland or Turkey, said diplomacy should begin from the current frontline and offered a full ceasefire while negotiations took place. Putin’s answer, delivered at the St Petersburg economic forum, left that formula without an opening.
Putin used the forum stage to restate the same war aims Moscow has been pressing for months. He said Russia controlled all of the Luhansk region and more than 85% of the Donetsk region, and repeated his demand that Ukraine give up all of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. He said Russia aimed to seize all of the eastern Donbas region, making clear that territorial demands remain at the center of any possible deal.
Zelenskyy struck back in his nightly video address, saying the Russian side was once again choosing war and calling Putin’s answer weak. He said the rejection showed the Kremlin had no wish to end the conflict, adding that many people around the world would be disappointed. His peace offer had already won approval from Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, but Putin’s response showed no sign that outside backing had shifted Moscow’s position.
The rejection also came after several days of pressure around the forum. Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg’s oil terminal hours before it opened on Wednesday, and later that night drones struck five Russian cargo ships in Mariupol, Berdiansk and the Sea of Azov. Russia said five sailors from Azerbaijan were killed. Against that backdrop, a U.S. delegation headed by Rodney Mims Cook Jr attended the forum, and Cook passed on the U.S. president’s regards to Putin.
Zelenskyy is due in London next to meet Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz, but the gap that now matters is simpler than protocol or venue: whether anyone can still build a ceasefire track after Putin dismissed the meeting and restated demands that Ukraine is unlikely to accept.
