The Japan Times - Kremlin rebuffs Zelensky's call for three-way meeting with Trump, Putin

Moscow said any meeting involving Russian President Putin and Zelensky would only happen after "concrete agreements" had been struck between negotiators from each side.

Putin rejected calls to meet Zelensky in Turkey earlier this month.

The Kremlin leader has repeatedly said he does not see Zelensky as a legitimate leader and called for him to be toppled.

US President Trump, meanwhile, has expressed frustration at both men for not yet striking a deal to end the war.

The two sides have traded waves of massive aerial attacks in recent weeks, with Ukraine firing almost 300 drones at Russia overnight, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

"If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don't mind. I am ready for any format," Zelensky said in comments to journalists on Tuesday that were published on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian leader said he was "ready" for a "Trump-Putin-me" meeting.

Asked about Zelensky's comments on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Such a meeting should be the result of concrete agreements between the two (Ukrainian and Russian) delegations."

The first direct peace talks in more than three years between the sides in Istanbul earlier this month failed to yield a breakthrough.

Moscow has rejected coordinated Western calls for an immediate ceasefire.

- 'Waiting for sanctions' -

The Ukrainian president also urged Washington to deliver a package of hard-hitting sanctions on Moscow's banking and energy sectors.

"Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him -- energy and the banking system. Will the US be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that."

Trump over the weekend called Putin "crazy" after a massive Russian barrage killed at least 13 people across Ukraine.

And on Tuesday, he went on blasting at the Russian leader.

"What Vladimir Putin doesn't realise is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He's playing with fire!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.

He has repeatedly threatened to impose fresh sanctions on Russia but has yet to do so.

Despite months of US-led diplomacy, the two sides appear no closer to striking a deal to end the three-year-long war, triggered by Russia's February 2022 invasion.

Tens of thousands have been killed, much of eastern and southern Ukraine has been destroyed, and Moscow's army now controls around a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Hours after Zelensky spoke, Ukraine unleashed one of its largest ever drone barrages on Russia, where officials reported only minimal damage from the attacks.

Moscow's three major international airports were forced to suspend flights for hours overnight amid the barrage, aviation authorities said.

- 'Amassing' troops -

Ukraine has accused Russia of dragging out the peace process and of not wanting to halt its invasion.

Kyiv is yet to receive a promised "memorandum" from Russia on its demands for a peace deal that Putin said he would send to Ukraine.

Work on the document was in its "final stages", Peskov said on Wednesday.

He also said there was no decision on where the next round of talks between the two sides would take place, after Moscow rejected calls to stage them in the Vatican.

Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News on Tuesday that they would "probably" be in Geneva.

"There are a huge collection of nuances that need to be discussed," Peskov said when asked about Trump's mounting frustration at slow progress.

On the battlefield, Zelensky said Russia was "amassing" more than 50,000 troops on the front line around the northeastern Sumy border region, where Moscow's army has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish what Putin has called a "buffer zone" inside Ukrainian territory.

Russia's army said on Wednesday that it had captured another village in the Sumy region.

Zelensky was in Germany on Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has pledged muscular backing for Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

K.Yoshida--JT