Zelenskyy instructed officials to arrange a meeting with Putin in Geneva – Axios

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has instructed his team to arrange a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

Axios reported this after Zelenskyy gave the outlet a 37-minute phone interview.

Zelenskyy told Axios that the best way to achieve a breakthrough on territorial issues is a face-to-face meeting with Putin.

According to him, U.S. intermediaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him that Russia genuinely wants to end the war, and that he should coordinate his actions with his negotiating team on that basis before the talks begin.

Zelenskyy also noted that the Russian delegation has a new leader: Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky.

Given the change in leadership, the Ukrainian president fears the Russian delegation may try to turn the negotiations into a mere meeting, or push things back to square one, in order to buy time on the battlefield.

At the same time, he stressed that Medinsky—like Putin himself—likes to philosophize about the “historical roots” of the war.

“We don’t have time for all that nonsense. So we have to make a decision and we have to end the war,” the Ukrainian president concluded.

Earlier, media reported that Zelenskyy is ready to discuss withdrawing Ukrainian troops from Donetsk Oblast, but urged Moscow to pull its forces back by an equivalent distance.

Western media have also written that part of the president’s inner circle supports withdrawing Ukrainian troops from Donetsk Oblast in order to reach peace as soon as possible.