Bloomberg: Trump proposed Zelensky meet with Putin in Moscow

US President Donald Trump proposed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to consider meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow as part of efforts to resume peace talks.

This was reported by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the content of the talks.

According to the agency, the possibility of the Ukrainian president's trip to the Russian capital was discussed in the context of finding a format for a direct meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. At the same time, neither the White House nor the Office of the President of Ukraine has publicly stated that Moscow is being considered as an agreed venue for negotiations.

The official statement of the Ukrainian side following the meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump in New York on September 22 contained information about the discussion of de-escalation steps and possible return to diplomacy, but the place of potential negotiations with Putin was not mentioned there.

Moscow has long proposed holding a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy in the Russian capital. The Kremlin reiterated this position again this week. The Ukrainian side, on the contrary, has repeatedly stated that a meeting in Russia or Belarus is unacceptable for Zelenskyy and negotiations must take place on neutral ground.

Zelenskyy himself on September 24 called the G20 summit in Miami one of the possible options for a meeting with Putin. According to him, Ukraine will support a trilateral format with US participation if the parties agree on it. As reported by European Pravda, Zelenskyy considers the G20 a suitable venue due to the presence of the US, European countries, China, India and others.

Bloomberg's report is notable because Trump himself had previously been publicly skeptical about the idea of negotiations in Moscow. During a meeting with Zelenskyy in July, the American president said that Putin had named the Russian capital as the preferred place for negotiations, but Trump said at the time that such an option "does not work."

"I said: you will not meet in Moscow. It just doesn't work," — Trump said, discussing his conversation with Putin.

Zelenskyy also said at the time that a trip to Moscow would be difficult for him.

In September, the US again intensified mediation efforts. Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner first visited Moscow and met with Putin, then held talks with Zelenskyy in Kyiv. The Ukrainian president then said that the parties discussed several ideas for resuming the negotiation process.

At the same time, a specific date for a direct meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin has not yet been agreed upon. Russia and Ukraine also maintain significant differences over the terms of a possible peace agreement.