Addressing an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday, Zelensky said by video link that arranging any talks with Russia was becoming more difficult in light of Russian actions against Ukrainian civilians, including the discovery of mass killings in areas occupied by Russian troops earlier in the war, the Reuters news agency reported.
"The president of the Russian Federation decides it all," Zelensky said, as quoted by Reuters.
"If we are talking about ending this war without him personally, that decision cannot be taken," he added.
Zelensky said through an interpreter: "I cannot accept any kind of meeting with anyone coming from the Russian Federation but the president, and only in the case when there is one issue on the (table): stopping the war. There are no other grounds for any other kind of meeting."
Earlier in the day, Zelensky told global business leaders meeting at Davos that the world faces "a turning point" and has to ramp up sanctions on Russia as a warning to other countries considering using brute force, Reuters reported.
"History is at a turning point," Zelensky said. "This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world."
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in Davos on Monday that the free world must “work towards a peaceful solution" to the Ukraine war, "but this peaceful solution has to mean that Ukraine has to be independent and sovereign."
On Tuesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda is scheduled to attend events at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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Source: PAP, ukrinform.net, Reuters