Zelenskyy Should Meet Putin in Moscow, Leveraging Past Ties, Says Former Aide

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's former spokesperson, Iuliia Mendel, has urged him to pursue a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Mendel argued that Zelenskyy's past professional ties and earnings in the Russian capital could be leveraged to negotiate a peace agreement. "When Zelenskyy was an entertainer, he often performed in Moscow," Mendel stated, adding that the Ukrainian president "knows a lot of people from Putin's elite."

Mendel noted that Zelenskyy "professionally grew in Moscow and earned his first millions in Moscow." She suggested that he "needs to go to Moscow and needs to agree on compromises that are acceptable," rather than playing "maximalist games" or being a "noble actor." She contended that Zelenskyy's promise to bring peace upon his election in 2019 has starkly contrasted with the ongoing war.

Prior to his political career, Zelenskyy had a significant career in entertainment. Beginning in the late 1990s, he was part of the comedy troupe Kvartal 95, participated in the Russian-language comedy program KVN, and worked as an actor, writer, and producer. According to Mendel, he performed on Russian stages and at private events and appeared in films shown across former Soviet republics. Even after Russia's annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas in early 2014, Zelenskyy reportedly traveled to Russia to work on the comedy film "Eight New Dates," released in Russian theaters in 2015. Many of Zelenskyy's films were in Russian and marketed to a Russian audience, with his market largely based there, according to reports.

In 2019, investigative journalists revealed that Zelenskyy and his business partners still owned three Russian companies, prompting him to promise to relinquish ownership of a Cyprus-registered company operating a film studio in Russia. Zelenskyy won Ukraine's 2019 presidential election on promises to fight corruption and pursue peace in eastern Ukraine.

Mendel criticized the current diplomatic approach, stating that a "personal opposition between Zelenskyy and Putin" is driving escalation. She suggested that while diplomatic efforts are underway for technical-level talks, potentially in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland, a sustainable peace deal requires more than just direct engagement between the two leaders. She also commented on the efforts of President Donald Trump, calling him the first Western leader to challenge the status quo and push for an end to the war, suggesting that many Ukrainians "place great hope in his ability to bring peace."

Further highlighting the need for external involvement, Mendel pointed to the brokering of a temporary ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine's Kherson region, by First Lady Melania Trump. This ceasefire, intended to allow humanitarian aid deliveries, demining, and civilian evacuations, was hailed by Mendel as an example of how a woman could "save lives" and shift the focus of peace efforts toward human well-being rather than territory.

Mendel also critiqued Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's chief of staff, for influencing the Ukrainian president towards confrontation. "Mr. Yermak was teaching Zelenskiy to be a strong man in diplomacy. And what today we see is actually diplomacy that doesn't exist," Mendel said, describing it as a "diplomacy of humiliation, diplomacy of constant threats, diplomacy of demands."