Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin—during their first meeting—on the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, but doubts that this dialogue will be effective. Zelenskyy made such remarks in an interview with public broadcasters, UNIAN reports.

"And in order to find a way out there, we must take that first step, about which I said: security guarantees, end of the war because everything is very heated, and this block is over, and then let's talk. At the first meeting with the President of Russia I am ready to raise these issues, they are urgent, they are important for us, about the occupied territories. But I am sure that decision will not be made at that meeting because, to be completely honest, we will talk about constitutional changes, changes in Ukrainian legislation on security issues. And if we talk about it, then, in any case, it will not be decided only by the president. This rather long process will be decided by both the Rada and the people of Ukraine," he said.

He also said that in case of a meeting with Putin "right now," there would be no "calls and historic speeches."

"I will discuss all the issues with him in great detail, leaving no opportunity for further risks of our state. I will try to go through all the issues that concern Russia and which it is dissatisfied with, and I will say—in detail—everything that the Ukrainian people think. If I have the opportunity and Russia—the desire, then we will go through all these issues. Will we solve all of them? No. But there is a possibility that some of it will be able to; at least stop the war. It is impossible without a solution," Zelenskyy said.

Putin, he added, "by destroying us, he is destroying himself."

Zelenskyy also said that the final compromise in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will be decided by an all-Ukrainian referendum, which concerns security guarantees, as well as the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea.