Zelensky proposes face-to-face meeting with Putin

**Will Chalk** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Will Chalk, and in the early hours of Friday, the 5th of June, these are our main stories. Ukraine's President Zelensky has written to Vladimir Putin, inviting him to a face-to-face meeting to negotiate an end to their war. President Trump says he's spoken directly to the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, officially designated in the US as a foreign terrorist organisation, about a possible end to fighting in Lebanon. A year on, from one of the world's deadliest air disasters, grieving families tell the BBC their compensation is not being handled fairly by Air India.
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**Chris Thrall** (0:46)
How he would have crossed the Khumbu Icefall with no ladders, beggars' belief. That takes it from a sort of utterly brutal ninja feat of endurance to just something else just incredible.

**Will Chalk** (1:00)
Yeah, an amazing story. The Napoli climbing guide, thought to have died on Everest last week, reaches base camp alive after six days exposed on the mountain.
So we start with an open letter to President Putin. It's over 1,800 words long. And in it, President Zelensky invites the Russian leader to a face-to-face meeting in a renewed bid to try and end the war.
It's been translated into English and posted on his social media platforms. And in it, the Ukrainian president says Russians have grown tired of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, petrol shortages, rising prices, as well as the war in general. He calls for a full ceasefire for the duration of the proposed negotiations. But that's something that Putin ruled out earlier on Thursday. If you read the statement, it's got a defiant and at times even mocking tone. Here is part of it read by one of our producers.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:59)
The world has not grown tired of Ukraine, as you long hoped it would. But there is growing fatigue with Russia, even among those in the wider world, who help you bypass sanctions and keep your economy afloat.
You cannot fail to notice it. After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll. And with time, the fatigue with you will only grow.

**Will Chalk** (2:21)
Now President Zelensky goes on to say that, with America so focused on what's happening in Iran, it would be wrong to wait until Washington could give the conflict in Europe its full attention. And that's something journalists put to President Trump at the White House.

**Chris Thrall** (2:34)
Well, I don't know, I'm glad that they're maybe talking about media.

**Shanto Hartle** (2:37)
I think we had a lot to do with it.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:39)
But I think it would be great if they met. They should get it done.

**Will Chalk** (2:43)
So, why has President Zelensky chosen to do this now? I got more from Vitaly Shevchenko, who is the chief analyst at BBC Monitoring and is in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

**Vitaly Shevchenko** (2:54)
He suggests that Vladimir Putin should be interested in sitting down and talking to him because he says that Russia is losing too many people on the battlefield and that Russians are tired of Ukrainian airstrikes. Also, notably, he says that it would be wrong for the United States to come back to trying to end the war in Ukraine because the Ukrainian president says Washington is focused on Iran. So, in itself, these offers are not new.
Vladimir Zelensky previously also invited Vladimir Putin to talks. He also suggested a ceasefire. And that's why I think that this letter is more about messaging and it would be very unlikely that it will lead to peace in Ukraine or even talks to the two presidents.

**Will Chalk** (3:55)
But that being said, the tone of the letter, it's not pleading or kind of meek.
It's almost mocking Russia in a way. So do you think then, given that, that the offers at the heart of it are still genuine offers?

**Vitaly Shevchenko** (4:10)
I think it's the last thing you should say when you are genuinely inviting Vladimir Putin to a meeting. When you say that, well, after so many years in power, age is beginning to take a toll on you, that is going to sound insulting to the Russian president.
And that's why I think that Volodymyr Zelensky himself isn't really hopeful that this meeting is going to take place.
The Kremlin's initial response to this letter in which they said, well, if he wants to talk to us so much, let him come to Moscow. It also suggests that they're not really thinking that this is going to happen, because Volodymyr Zelensky is extremely unlikely to come to Moscow. That would look so close to a surrender, visiting the capital of the state that is waging war on you. And also, this idea that Volodymyr Zelensky should come to Moscow, it has been voiced before by Volodymyr Putin himself back in September last year, when he said that, well, he was told to me that he would come to Moscow, but what is the point? And I do think that that attitude in the Kremlin, what's point of talking to Zelensky, I do think that it hasn't changed.