Two Leaders Haggle Over a Phone Call. Territory Isn't Theirs.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Oct. 30 that Vladimir Putin is "open to dialogue with everyone." Asked whether the Russian president would phone Volodymyr Zelensky, Peskov added that "no one has called yet." That's the whole offer. Meanwhile the question on the table, according to the Kyiv Independent, is who gets to decide the fate of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the answer being negotiated is: two men, at a level of their choosing, in a venue they argue over.

The Kremlin, the Kyiv Independent has learned, is trying to avoid a face-to-face meeting by proposing a phone call instead. Ukrainian officials privately suspect a trap. "They've already tried to do this over the phone," one senior Ukrainian official said, speaking anonymously. The two presidents last met in person in Paris in December 2019, nearly seven years ago, at Normandy Format talks mediated by France and Germany. They haven't spoken directly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. This is the fifth year of the war.

Who Decides

Zelensky was blunt on Oct. 27, three days ago: "Territorial issues can only be discussed by the leaders of the countries at war, and only at their level. No one else has the authority to do so." Read that again. The land, the towns, the people living on them: all of it belongs, in this arrangement, to whoever holds the title of head of state. The people of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts aren't at the table. They're the agenda item.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire and demanded that Kyiv surrender the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russian forces have failed to capture. Ukraine wants a ceasefire along the current front line. Territory, the report notes, remains one of the main obstacles to an agreement.

The Summit Circuit

The history of attempted meetings reads like a diary of diplomatic theatre. Zelensky invited Putin to Istanbul on May 16, 2025, proposing a trilateral with U.S. President Donald Trump. Putin declined and sent a delegation led by a low-level presidential aide, Vladimir Medinsky. After meeting Putin in Alaska in August 2025, Trump said he was working on a meeting between the two leaders. He later said Putin was reluctant because "he doesn't like him." Personal chemistry, then, is among the factors shaping a war now in its fifth year.

Now, whenever Kyiv raises a leaders' meeting, the Kremlin challenges Zelensky to come to Moscow. Zelensky wants a neutral location. People familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Independent that Washington supports a leaders' meeting and that the G20 summit in Miami in December could serve as a venue, if Putin accepts Trump's invitation. A war settlement, in other words, may get brokered on the sidelines of a gathering of the world's largest economies.

Abu Dhabi, Again

Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. plan talks in Abu Dhabi in November, after a pause of more than eight months. Zelensky says the technical talks should seek "an energy and maritime ceasefire, prisoner exchanges" and a discussion of the format for a trilateral leaders' meeting. Ukrainian officials say the Russian representatives sent to negotiations lack authority to decide anything. "We need a trilateral format with the U.S., plus some involvement from the Europeans," one senior official said. "What good will a phone call do?"

The same official wants Putin to "come out of his bunker" and personally confirm he is ending the war. Prisoner exchanges are on the agenda. The prisoners, as ever, are the ones with no say over the date, the venue, or whether the call gets made. Nobody has phoned anybody yet.