©picture alliance / SvenSimon-Press Service Of The P | Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine
At a press conference with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky—during which the Ukrainian president mistakenly referred to the U.S. president as “Putin”—the Ukrainian president made it clear that there was no way he would travel to Moscow at the invitation of Vladimir Putin.
Whenever Zelensky and Trump meet, strange things happen. Often, there are odd, awkward conversations. This was no different at the press conference during the NATO summit in Ankara.
“Do you have any questions for Putin?” the U.S. president asked, pointing at Zelensky. Trump realized his embarrassing mistake and tried to wriggle out of it with a bit of a trick. He stopped pointing at Zelensky, who was sitting next to him, and asked again if the reporters had a question for President Putin . “Because I’ll be seeing him soon and could ask him your question,” Trump continued. When he spoke about a missile attack on a U.S. military ship by Iran, he actually referred to the country as “the Islamic Republic of Japan.” Two embarrassing slips of the tongue.
Zelensky, in turn, made a sharp joke about a possible trip to Moscow. The Ukrainian president said it would be “difficult” because, according to him, there are “a lot of Ukrainian drones in the air” there. “It’s dangerous; it’s dangerous there,” Zelensky replied. A lighthearted but clearly mocking response to Trump’s question about talks in Moscow. With his remark, Zelensky immediately set the tone. According to him, peace talks in Moscow are by no means a given. Trump, too, had previously indicated that Zelensky would likely not accept Russian President Putin’s proposal to travel to Moscow.
©picture alliance / SvenSimon-Press Service Of The P | Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine