Bloomberg reported the proposal, citing sources familiar with the meeting. According to those sources, the conversation between the two leaders took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Zelensky's refusal, according to Bloomberg's sources, upset Trump. People close to the Ukrainian president, in turn, said the very proposal to go to Moscow upset Zelensky.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky is possible only in Moscow. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said the Ukrainian leader would be provided with the necessary security guarantees if he came.
Putin previously said that Zelensky had asked him for a personal meeting through one of the Russian businessmen. It later emerged that this referred to Roman Abramovich. The Russian president said he had never refused a meeting but did not want to go back and forth to no purpose.
On the sidelines of the General Assembly, VGTRK correspondent Valentin Bogdanov tried to ask Zelensky when he would visit Moscow. The Ukrainian president initially did not react, then answered to the side: "On a rocket." According to Bloomberg, he swore after that.
Zelensky also said that the United States insists on three steps to de-escalate the war: halting strikes on energy infrastructure, resuming the Black Sea grain corridor, and a trilateral meeting of representatives of the United States, Russia and Ukraine. Such a meeting, he said, could take place in Abu Dhabi, and at the leaders' level at the December G20 summit in Miami, where Putin was invited.