プーチン氏との直接対話言及のゼレンスキー氏を批判　ロシア大統領府

【モスクワＡＦＰ＝時事】ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は４日に公開された英ジャーナリストのインタビュー動画で、ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領との直接対話に応じる用意があると述べた。これを受け同国大統領府（クレムリン）のドミトリー・ペスコフ報道官は５日、「空虚な言葉」だと一蹴した。（写真は、ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領）
　ゼレンスキー氏は英ジャーナリスト、ピアーズ・モーガン氏の取材に対し、「ウクライナ市民に平和をもたらし、人々を失わないための唯一の方法であれば、間違いなくその方法を選ぶ」と語り、プーチン氏との交渉に応じる用意があるとの考えを示した。
　ペスコフ氏はこの日、記者団に、ゼレンスキー氏の発言について「現時点では空虚な言葉としか受け取れない」と話した。
　また、ゼレンスキー氏は昨年、５年の任期を終えているはずのため、合法的な大統領ではないと改めて主張した。ウクライナでは戒厳令の下、大統領選挙が行われていない。
　ペスコフ氏は、ウクライナが北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）に加盟できない場合、核抑止力の保有が認められるべきだとの考えをゼレンスキー氏が示唆したことについても、国際的な核不拡散体制に言及しつつ、「狂気に近い発言だ」と非難した。
　ゼレンスキー氏はインタビューで、旧ソ連時代に核兵器がウクライナに配備されていたことを踏まえ、「核兵器を返してくれ、強力なミサイルシステムをくれ、パートナーがほしい、兵力１００万人の軍に資金支援してくれ」と語っていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/02/06-16:55）

The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he was ready for direct talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as empty words.
Talk of a negotiated end to the nearly three-year conflict has risen with Donald Trump -- who has pledged to end the fighting -- back in the White House and Ukraine's troops struggling on the battlefield in the east.
Asked how he would feel if he sat opposite Putin at a negotiating table, Zelensky told British journalist Piers Morgan in an interview published Tuesday: If that is the only set-up in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this set-up.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists: So far, this cannot be seen as anything but empty words.
Putin last week said Moscow would hold talks with Ukraine but ruled out speaking directly with Zelensky.
A decree signed by Zelensky in 2022 rules out direct talks with Putin -- something Peskov pointed to on Wednesday and that Moscow regularly highlights when asked if it is ready for talks with Kyiv.
The Kremlin spokesman also reiterated Russia's frequent claim that Zelensky is not a legitimate president, as his five-year mandate in office expired last year.
Under martial law, Ukraine has a ban on holding elections.
Zelensky has big problems de jure (legally) in Ukraine. But even despite that we remain ready for talks, Peskov said, saying that the reality on the ground meant that Kyiv had to be the first to demonstrate openness and interest in such talks.
- 'Clear ultimatum' -
After the interview, Zelensky posted comments Wednesday on social media saying that talks with Putin in themselves would be a compromise for Ukraine and its allies.
Putin is a murderer and a terrorist. This is a fact, he said, in comments live-translated into English.
And if our allies believe that diplomacy is the way forward, let's be honest: isn't even a single conversation with Putin a compromise? Talking to a murderer is a compromise for Ukraine and the entire civilised world.
Zelensky also said Putin will only understand the need to end this war if he is given a clear ultimatum by the United States, and that the power to shape that peace depends on President Trump.
Peskov on Wednesday said contact with the new US administration had intensified but gave no indication of when a possible meeting or call between Putin and Trump could take place.
Peskov also slammed Zelensky for suggesting that Ukraine should be allowed to have a nuclear deterrent if it is unable to join NATO.
Zelensky had said Ukraine would need an alternative package of protection, including nuclear weapons, if it cannot join NATO or the process drags on.
Let's put it this way: give us nuclear weapons back, give us strong missile systems, partners, help us fund a million-man army, Zelensky said.
Peskov said that such statements are bordering on madness, citing international rules on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
- 'Very difficult' -
Kyiv has struggled to hold back Russian forces and Zelensky has conceded that it is unlikely his army will be able to recapture territory seized by Russia.
Moscow on Wednesday said its troops took two more Ukrainian villages in the country's east and northeast.
But Zelensky called Ukraine's hold of Russian territory in its western Kursk region important in terms of any future negotiations.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, he said Ukraine's shock offensive into the region, launched last August, was a very important operation.
Putin said Wednesday that the situation in the Kursk region was very difficult, in a meeting with the local governor over support for locals displaced or who had suffered material losses in the Ukrainian attack.
Discontent has been building there, with a Russian woman whose elderly parents disappeared in the Ukrainian incursion telling AFP that the authorities needed to set-up a humanitarian corridor for Russians to return from Ukrainian-held territory.
Both sides also announced an exchange of captured soldiers -- with 150 Russians and 150 Ukrainians returning home via Belarus in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates, despite ongoing hostilities.
A Russian missile attack on the coastal Ukrainian town of Pivdenne on Wednesday evening killed a 39-year-old local and wounded a 19-year-old man, Odesa's regional prosecutors said.