Zelenskyy offers to meet Putin at G20 in Miami

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would travel to Miami if his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, attended the Group of 20 (G20) leaders' summit scheduled for December.

Zelenskyy replied enthusiastically when DW's correspondent Misha Komadovsky posed the question on Friday.

"Yes, of course. We have to come. We have to meet, to speak and make decisions," he said.

Zelenskyy added that what he was going to say to Putin mattered less than results.

"It's not about words. What I will tell him or what he wants to tell me, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. [...] Results matter. That's it."

Zelenskyy and Putin have not met in person since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in February 2022.

The Kremlin has so far declined to say whether Putin would go to Miami for the meeting.

The Russian leader has not personally attended a G20 summit since 2019.

Last month, Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was however invited by the US to attend a meeting of G20 countries in North Carolina in a move that upset European officials.

First up, however, Zelenskyy spoke of the deals he signed on Thursday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, including a 100-year partnership declaration.

Zelenskyy underlined the importance of the deal, which he said covered numerous sectors, "from security, financing, energy, very important energy, veteran policy, and culture, and relationships and humanitarian issues." 

"So it's a global decision, a really historic decision, and I'm happy that we have it," he said.

Zelenskyy said he had also signed a deal on collaboration on drone production with the Canadian leader involving a number of Ukrainian companies.