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.
100-year partnership declaration with Canada
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.
Zelenskyy pushes for more Patriot missiles ahead of winter
Zelenskyy’s interview with DW comes as summer is nearly over and Ukraine is gearing up for the cold months of winter.
The Ukrainian president has conceded that his country has been struggling to counter flying jet-propelled drones that Russia has been increasingly deploying.
“They [US] have political will to sell and to help, but the production is not too big. So it means that stocks is a variant,” he said.
“Will Americans be ready to give us (Patriots)? I don’t know. We will see.”
Patriot missiles are powerful weapons that are currently the most effective defense against Russian ballistic missile attacks.
What Zelenskyy needs from US and European allies
“Russia [currently] produces 140 ballistic missiles per month. So, according to the rules of NATO, if you want to destroy 140, you need a 1-to-2 [ratio], 280 missiles,” Zelenskyy told DW.
“You will never have 280 missiles per month, and between us, it’s a huge challenge to have [even] 100 missiles per month. This is what I want. I want to have 100-120 for these difficult months, especially the cold months.”
Germany earlier this week said it was going to send Patriot missiles from its national stock, without specifying how many missiles that would be.
Zelenskyy called on Kyiv’s European allies to provide more support.
“They have to give as much as possible. With all respect to them, they have to give to Ukrainians to save their lives.”
Zelenskyy also spoke of having secured agreements with several European companies to develop a Ukrainian-led anti-missile system called Freya.
He said he was hoping that the first test phase would begin by the end of December, stressing that time was short.
Ukraine in ‘good position for negotiations’
Zelenskyy said that it was a “good signal” that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Kyiv earlier this week, and not just Moscow.
He said he had made clear to them that his country was well-placed for negotiations on ending the conflict, with Russia estimated to be losing more than 30,000 soldiers a month.
Zelenskyy said this meant that Moscow was paying a “big price” for small gains on the battlefield.
“So that’s why we think that we have now good position for negotiations,” he said, adding that his country was stronger than last year.
Grain and energy top priorities
The other concern that has been coming up steadily over this summer is the shipment of grains through the Black Sea, with Moscow and Kyiv currently targeting each other’s ships and hindering exports.
Russia’s de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in the Odesa region has led to a 76% fall in Ukraine’s grain exports year-on-year so far in August.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken with the two envoys about an energy and grain ceasefire that could provide a starting point for peace.
“What can bring us to any kind of negotiations? So energy and grain. This is step number one. What we can achieve,” he said.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
