Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if Ukraine uses long-range weapons supplied to it by the West to strike targets inside Russian territory, that would signify NATO countries were also at war with Russia.
But Zelenskyy hinted he had not given up hope that Biden – who has four months left in office – could make a U-turn in time for a “historic mission” to make “important decisions for Ukraine”.
“We have had some decisions in the history of our relationship with Biden – very interesting and difficult dialogues,” the Ukrainian leader said.
“He later changed his point of view”.
A close adviser to Biden said this month he would use his remaining time in office to “put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail”.
NOVEMBER SUMMIT
Zelenskyy will travel to the United States after a summer of intense fighting.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing in eastern Ukraine while Kyiv has held onto swathes of Russia’s Kursk region for weeks.
The Russian army is now around 10km away from the eastern Ukrainian hub of Pokrovsk, where Kyiv has rushed people evacuated from frontline areas.
The war has dragged on for almost 31 months and efforts to end fighting have so far proved unsuccessful.
Zelenskyy repeated that Ukraine was “ready” to invite Russia to a second international peace summit in November “because all our allies, including our closest ones” said Russia should be there.
“It is Russia who is fighting Ukraine. There can be no end of the war without one of the parties,” he said.
Zelensky said the November summit would be “the foundation for talking in any format with Russia”.
But Russia said on Saturday it will not take part in such a summit and repeated Putin’s conditions that Moscow will only come to the table if Kyiv surrenders four of its regions.
