Putin never refused to meet Zelensky, but ‘a document’ needs to be drafted — Kremlin

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he believed that only Ankara was capable of helping to reach progress in the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has never refused in principle to hold a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, but a document must be drafted before such meeting can be arranged, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"There is no detailed novation regarding this issue," Peskov said speaking at a daily news briefing. "We have already spoken about this meeting saying that in principle the [Russian] president never refused it, but certain conditions must be arranged before this meeting, namely a text of the document."

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he believed that only Ankara was capable of helping to reach progress in the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Qazet.az reports.

However, Russian President Putin said on Tuesday that Kiev drove negotiations with Moscow into a dead end again by deviating from the agreements reached during the Istanbul round.

The Russian-Ukrainian negotiations kicked off on February 28 with several meetings between the two delegations held in Belarus. Later, the negotiators continued contacts by way of videoconferencing. On March 29, a new face-to-face round of talks was held in Istanbul.