KIEV, April 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s statement he has issued instructions to make preparations for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin remains part of a "mass media ping-pong game and a public relations gimmick," the director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, Ruslan Bortnik, told TASS on Monday.
"Against the backdrop of the continuing Donbass crisis and disrupted ceasefire President Zelensky’s teem is desperate to demonstrate at least some changes and to give some hope for peace. The more so, since a large share of Ukrainian society supports the idea of Zelensky’s direct talks with Putin, which is well seen in opinion polls. We are witnesses to a ping-pong game in the mass media space and attempts to score public relations points on a socially significant issue," he believes.
Bortnik warns that Ukraine is still far away from real negotiations, shaping an agenda and setting a date and place of such a meeting.
"All these instructions [to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office] Andrei Yermak and the claims that in Ukraine there is no problem of the Russian language or the Church, which he is ready to state at a meeting with Putin - all these moves are PR tricks," Bortnik said.
He added that the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders should not be ruled out altogether, but, he speculates, it may take place rather on the condition of European or US brokerage.
"The Russian leadership does not need a meeting for a meeting’s sake, if there are no chances of achieving strategic agreements. In the meantime, these are hardly possible," Bortnik concluded.
Proposal for a meeting
On April 20, Zelensky invited Putin to meet "at any point in Donbass where the conflict is continuing." On April 22, the Russian leader commented on the Ukrainian president’s idea that "if the point at issue is a discussion of Donbass problems, then the Ukrainian leadership should meet with the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics first thing." This is precisely what settlement efforts in Donbass should begin with. Such issues can be discussed with any third country, including Russia, only after that. Putin added that he would be ready to see Zelensky in Moscow at any convenient moment for a discussion of bilateral relations.
Putin said it was such steps by the Ukrainian leadership as violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population and attempts to undermine the unity of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine that harmed bilateral relations.
Earlier on Monday, Zelensky said in reply to this statement that he had issued instructions to Yermak to arrange for a meeting with Putin. He added that the agenda of the meeting was really important to him, while its venue was a detail of secondary importance. Also, Zelensky said he was ready to discuss the status of Russian speakers and the Church in Ukraine.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that no details of a possible meeting were available at the moment.