The Kremlin brushed off Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s open letter to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, calling for a direct meeting to end Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Zelensky’s letter, published late on Thursday, came amid Putin’s meeting with senior editors of major news agencies in the Constantine Palace during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to a Telegram post reporting the meeting live, the Kremlin responded: “If Zelensky wants to meet with Putin, he can come to Moscow.” The dismissive tone was echoed in Putin’s broader remarks about the West and Ukraine. “They are simply not willing to talk to Russia as an equal partner,” he said, “but they will have to do that. We are in no hurry.” The message signaled that neither Western pressure nor Ukrainian proposals would accelerate any settlement on terms Moscow dislikes. To back up his point about timing, Putin added: “Even if you put nine pregnant women together, nine women cannot give birth to a child in one month,” suggesting that no external effort can force Russia into what it considers premature concessions. Zelensky’s letter, by contrast, framed Russia as slowly losing ground – not only militarily, but economically and politically – citing 30,000 soldier casualties, as well as growing fatigue among the Russian society.