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Zelensky ready to meet with Putin if necessary, presidential office says

The first meeting of the two presidents was held on December 9

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky

© EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, February 12. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if this is necessary, but no talks on the issue are underway now, new Ukrainian Presidential Office Head Andrei Yermak said on Wednesday.

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"Speaking about the meeting with Putin, it’s up to President Zelensky to make this decision. If he sees that this meeting is necessary and that it could become a step towards achieving a real outcome of talks in the Normandy format, we are not ruling this out. But so far no talks on the issue have been held," Yermak told reporters, answering a question if the two leaders could meet before the summit of the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) scheduled for April.

Earlier Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that the Russian and Ukrainian leaders had established a working contact. The first phone conversation between Putin and Zelensky was held on July 11, 2019, a month and a half after Zelensky’s inauguration. The two leaders talked over the phone several times. Their first meeting was held on December 9 at the Paris summit of the Normandy Four group.

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