Putin rejects meeting with Zelenski and encourages his soldiers: "Keep working, brothers!”

MoscowNo face-to-face meetings or concessions. The letter that Volodymyr Zelensky sent to Vladimir Putin in which he asked him to end the war in Ukraine has received the expected response: an unappealable no. The Russian president appeared at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum amidst escalating bombings and with his soldiers struggling to advance a few meters on the front, but he showed himself convinced, once again, that the conflict can only end with Russia's victory. 

“The fighting will end when we achieve our stated objectives,” Putin stated. One of the main ones, the conquest of all of Donbas, despite Zelensky believing it to be impossible at the pace the Russian troops are moving. “Perhaps they don't know in Kyiv that 100% of Luhansk and 85% of Donetsk are under our control,” the Russian president pointed out. According to him, his men are advancing “calmly, but confidently” and “there is no doubt” that they will occupy the entire region. 

Putin also offered a very optimistic view of the balance in the drone war. Although the latest reports from independent military observers warn that clear Ukrainian superiority is beginning to threaten the Russian front, the Russian leader assured that there is parity between both armies on the front line and that Russian aircraft even have an advantage in some areas.

On the other hand, Moscow's demands are not limited to territories. Putin has emphasized the will to "denazify" Ukraine and has criticized that, recently, the remains of a Ukrainian nationalist leader who had collaborated with Nazi Germany were repatriated with full honors. Be that as it may, behind this concept of "denazification" lies also the Kremlin's original desire to depose Zelensky, ban nationalist parties, and steer the country back towards its sphere of influence.

The Russian president, who has referred to the Ukrainian leader at all times as "the author of the letter," without naming him, does not want a high-level meeting because he "sees no point in it." He believes that such meetings only serve to sign agreements, but not to advance negotiations. According to Putin, the only point is that Ukraine wants to use it to stop the progress of the Russian army. Furthermore, he criticizes the "rude" tone of the letter and opines that, rather than a document to create conditions for a personal meeting, it is an attempt to "create an atmosphere in which any meeting is impossible".

In fact, the first thing the Russian president commented on the text was Zelensky's appeal to stop the conflict with the argument that Putin is already old. Aware that aging is a delicate issue for the leader of the Kremlin, the Ukrainian president always takes any opportunity to poke at it. The Russian leader defended himself by reminding him that there are many other politicians older than him and that the important thing is to have energy and be in shape to work.

Putin also revealed that a few weeks ago a Russian businessman met with Zelensky in Kyiv and that, although he did not travel on behalf of the Kremlin, he did inform the Russian president of the Ukrainian request for a meeting. The next day, however, when the attack on a university residence in Luhansk occurred, in which 21 young people died, Putin asked the businessman: "They ask for a meeting and commit such terrible crimes? What does that mean?". Since then, Moscow has used that massacre to justify an escalation of hostilities. In fact, Putin, so that there would be no doubt about the meaning of his words, concluded: "I should not address the author of this letter, but our soldiers at the front: keep up the good work, brothers!"

Zelensky: "Russia has chosen war"

A few minutes after finishing the event, Zelensky responded to Putin in a video on social media. “Unfortunately, the Russian side is choosing war again,” he stated. The Ukrainian president called the response “weak” and added that “many in the world have been disappointed.” “He doesn't want to change anything and doesn't want to admit that only he and those who make money from it like his war,” he concluded.

A year ago, in this very scenario, Putin wanted to make it clear that if anyone had to make concessions to reach an agreement, it had to be Ukraine. “We have an old rule: where a Russian soldier steps, that is ours,” he commented at the time, threatening Zelensky that if he did not accept his maximum demands, Russia would irreversibly continue to russify newly conquered territories. At that moment, the Russian army was advancing steadily and the siege of one of the last fortress cities in Donbas, Pokrovsk, was beginning. Now, however, the panorama is very different: the front has been stagnant since winter and Russian troops are moving with great difficulty. And, nevertheless, Putin's discourse has not varied substantially. While bombs fall every day and Donald Trump looks the other way, the Russian president sees no other way out than to fight until he achieves his objectives.