The Kremlin said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, but only if certain agreements were reached.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not specify what agreements would be required from Russia's point of view. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019.

President Zelensky had challenged the Kremlin leader to meet him in Turkey this week but Putin instead sent a team of aides and officials to meet Ukrainian negotiators on Friday for the first bilateral, face-to-face talks since March 2022.

Ukraine said it had raised the issue of a Putin-Zelenskiy meeting at the talks.

Peskov said Russia considered such a meeting was possible, but only as a result of work between the two sides to "achieve certain results in the form of agreements".

He added: "At the same time, when signing documents that the delegations are to agree upon, the main and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents from the Ukrainian side."

Peskov did not elaborate on that remark. Putin has previously challenged Zelenskiy's legitimacy as president because his elected term of office expired last year.

Ukraine, under martial law as it defends itself against Russia, has not set a date for a new election.

Peskov also said that Ukraine and Russia must first complete an agreed prisoner-of-war exchange and come up with ceasefire conditions before planning any new talks.

"For now, we need to do what the delegations agreed on yesterday" in Turkey – the first direct talks in over three years, he said in reponse to a question on whether there were plans for a second round of talks.

"This, of course, means first and foremost to complete a 1,000 for 1,000 [POW)] swap." (Reuters/AFP)