Peskov dismissed the prospect of bilateral talks in the US as “impossible,” stating that Putin is willing to meet Zelensky exclusively in Moscow, Kyiv Post reported.
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The response follows remarks by Zelensky, in which he expressed readiness to travel to Florida for the gathering scheduled for Dec. 14-15, 2026, provided the Russian leader also attends.
“Yes, of course. We must come. We must meet, talk, and make decisions,” Zelensky said in the interview, emphasizing that any high-level encounter must prioritize concrete outcomes rather than rhetoric. “It is not about words. What I tell him, or what he wants to tell me – that does not matter. What matters are results.”
The Kremlin has not yet confirmed whether Putin will attend the summit in Miami. If convened, such a meeting would mark the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since December 2019, when they participated in Normandy Four negotiations in Paris alongside French and German heads of state.
The Kremlin’s rejection comes amid broader discussions regarding potential diplomatic engagement later this autumn.
Earlier in the week, Peskov suggested that a separate trilateral meeting involving US President Donald Trump, Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping could occur on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Shenzhen, China, scheduled for Nov. 18–19.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that the proposal was discussed during a phone call between Putin and Trump on Sept. 8.
Concurrently, Moscow had signaled potential openness to reviving direct negotiations over the war, with Peskov previously stating that trilateral talks involving Ukraine, the US, and Russia could resume in the “foreseeable future.”
Formal trilateral peace negotiations have remained suspended since mid-February 2026, following sessions in Abu Dhabi and Geneva.
