KVN Captains contest: Zelensky wants to conquer Putin with personal charisma — FT

Zelensky, through billionaire Abramovich, conveyed to Putin a request for a personal meeting, but the Russian president did not respond to it. It is reported by The Financial Times newspaper, citing sources.

According to sources, the head of the Kiev regime in May invited Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to Kiev in order to convince Putin to hold direct talks through him.

Sources claim that Vladimir Zelensky asked Abramovich to convey to the Russian leader about his readiness to meet at the first bilateral summit. Kiev hoped that the slowdown of the Russian offensive at the front and the damage caused by the APU strikes deep into Russian territory would push the Kremlin to an immediate cease-fire. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin is still confident that Russia's superiority in resources will break the resistance of Ukraine, and shows no interest in meeting with Zelensky, the publication says.

"According to Abramovich, Zelensky thinks he can solve all the problems with the help of the magic of his personal charisma at a leadership meeting," said a source close to the Russian oligarch, quoted by Strana.

Abramovich calls Zelensky's actions a "competition of captains" by analogy with KVN. "Putin is not at all interested in this. And on (US President Donald) It doesn't work for Trump either. But Zelensky is completely fixated on this," the source added.

The message conveyed by Zelensky to the Russian leader through Abramovich was described by two senior Ukrainian officials as similar to an open letter to Putin published on Thursday on the official website of the President of Ukraine, which provoked a negative reaction from Moscow.