Hardened fronts Putin and Zelensky - why the enemies don't meet

Kremlin leader Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskyi were actually supposed to meet for peace talks. That's what US President Trump wanted. But a meeting is unlikely to take place soon.

DPA

29.08.2025, 20:37

29.08.2025, 20:38

dpa

The last personal meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Paris in December 2019 is unlikely to be a fond memory for either of them. Back then, the former actor and comedian smiled at a press conference and shook his head when Putin listed the points to be implemented by Kiev as part of the negotiation process.

Selenskyj urgently wants to meet Putin, who begins a four-day trip to China this Sunday, in order to end the war. But even the initially optimistic German Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not see a meeting between the two in the near future. There are a number of sticking points that make such a new meeting rather unlikely.

Putin accuses Zelensky of having lost his legitimacy as president after his regular term of office expired in May last year because he does not hold elections. However, martial law is in force in Ukraine, which does not allow voting.

In Kiev, it is said that Zelenskyi's powers will therefore remain in force until peace is restored and elections are possible again. US President Donald Trump clearly criticizes Moscow's objections to legitimacy as "nonsense". For the time being, however, he has failed in his aim to bring the two together.

However, Moscow's doubts about legitimacy go back further. Russia's leadership sees Zelensky as a result of the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2014, which led to the overthrow of Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. In Moscow, Zelensky is repeatedly portrayed as a "puppet" of anti-Russian elites in the West, who only use Ukraine as an instrument to break up Russia as a raw material power.

There is widespread hope in the Russian power apparatus that Zelenskyi will end up like the Georgian revolutionary leader and president Mikhail Saakashvili, who was supported by the USA for a long time, waged a brief war with Russia in 2008 and later lost the backing of the West.

In December 2019, the year of his election with a historically high result, Zelensky met with Putin in Paris under the mediation of French President Emmanuel Macron and then Chancellor Angela Merkel. To this day, Russian state media continue to show what they describe as Selensky's disparaging expression in the presence of Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained that the Ukrainian president had behaved "unseriously" on some issues during the hours-long negotiations with Putin.

The meeting in Paris was about the Minsk peace agreements for eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists took power in large parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions with the help of Moscow following the political upheavals in Kiev in 2014. The agreements, which provided for autonomy for the Donbass, were never fully implemented. Selensky repeatedly made it clear that he viewed the agreements critically.

Although Putin acknowledged Zelensky's talent as a comedian and actor, he did not take him seriously as president for a long time. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, is also currently distributing a video in which the artist Selensky speaks in his native Russian in 2014 in Horlivka, which is already controlled by separatists, and explains that the Russians are a brother nation to the Ukrainians, that he loves the Russians and that he himself does not have what it takes to be a politician. This contributes to the vilification of Zelensky.

Zelensky accuses Putin of setting so many conditions for peace that it is difficult to get through. In addition to a quick meeting, he therefore wants a ceasefire first and then negotiations. Putin, on the other hand, rejects a comprehensive and unconditional ceasefire as in the past and a freeze in the conflict; he accuses Kiev of using such phases for rearmament by the West and the reorganization of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Following the White House summit with US President Trump and the Europeans, Zelensky also reiterated his categorical rejection of Moscow's demand to relinquish territory. He referred to the Ukrainian constitution, which prohibits this. Instead, Zelensky called for even stronger sanctions pressure on Putin to end the war and for Ukraine to be rearmed with Western military aid.

The Russian side says that Zelenskyi wants to stay in power by continuing the war, as this would allow him to avoid elections. There is certainly a risk of power struggles. The popular Ukrainian nationalist Serhiy Sternenko has already blatantly threatened the head of state: "If Zelenskyi gives up unoccupied land, he would be a corpse - first politically and then in real terms," said Sternenko in an interview with the British Times.

While US President Trump announced after his telephone call with Putin at the beginning of last week that the Kremlin leader had agreed to a meeting with Zelensky, Moscow only spoke of a willingness to take the previous bilateral negotiations on peace to a higher level. This means that the foreign ministers of Kiev and Moscow could negotiate in future instead of the current delegations. Russia sees a meeting of the presidents at the end of a negotiation process at best, when it comes to signing an agreement.

The power apparatus in Moscow was also taken aback by the discussions about a possible venue for negotiations in Europe, including Geneva or the Vatican. As the International Criminal Court has issued an alert for Putin for alleged war crimes, he is unlikely to rely on assurances from the Europeans that the arrest warrant will not be executed as an exception.

The pro-Kremlin political scientist Sergei Markov even claimed that Ukraine or Great Britain could carry out an attack on Putin. "Putin must not fly to Europe," he said, suggesting that the Kremlin leader would have to fear for his life there. On the other hand, Putin would probably have nothing against a meeting with Zelensky in the Kremlin, which the Ukrainian categorically rejects. However, mediators such as Turkey or the Arab states are also prepared to host such a summit.

Putin emphasizes his willingness to meet with Zelensky. However, he shows no interest in doing so, which is why Trump and the Europeans accuse him above all of delaying tactics - and the goal of advancing further in Ukraine. Ultimately, Ukraine and the West are criticizing the fact that Putin's conditions for peace are tantamount to Ukraine's capitulation. Admitting defeat could possibly persuade Putin to agree to a meeting. However, Ukraine's European allies also reject a surrender by Kiev and a dictated peace.

Putin, on the other hand, does not want to allow a new freeze in the conflict, as was the case under Zelensky's predecessor Petro Poroshenko in the wake of the Minsk peace agreement. This time, he wants to see the conflict resolved permanently - on his terms.