The leaders should only meet after a peace deal is finalized, Vladimir Medinsky says
Russian negotiators led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky hold a press conference in Istanbul on July 23, 2025. © Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik
The leaders of Russia and Ukraine should meet only after a peace treaty is ready to be signed, Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told journalists after the two sides concluded the third round of negotiations in Istanbul on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led Kiev’s delegation, had previously suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky should meet next month to try to break the deadlock.
Medinsky, however, argued that a face-to-face sit-down meeting would be pointless unless the deal is already finalized. “The meeting must be properly prepared, and only then will it make sense. We have conveyed this position to the Ukrainian delegation,” he said.
“For such a meeting to take place, we must first agree on the terms of the deal and have a clear understanding of the agenda. In essence, the meeting should serve not to negotiate the agreement, but to sign it,” he added.
“There’s no point in meeting only to begin negotiations from square one,” Medinsky said.
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He argued that a meeting between the two leaders would not automatically end the conflict, pointing to the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s. “Chiang Kai-shek constantly insisted on meeting in person to discuss everything. I believe they met five times, smiled, and posed for photographs, but it did not bring an end to the civil war. The core issues remained unresolved, and the war went on,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that finalizing agreements would be a necessary precursor for a Putin-Zelensky meeting.
Although Putin has questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy, he said last month that he was open to meeting him at the final stage of talks.
Zelensky, whose five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, has refused to call new elections, citing martial law.
Moscow has listed the lifting of martial law as one of the conditions for a lasting ceasefire and has demanded that Ukraine hold elections within 100 days after martial law is lifted.