Putin slams door on Zelensky meeting, saying there's 'no point' as Ukrainian drone strikes batter Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin slapped down the idea of any face-to-face talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, while admitting his economy is tanking as swarms of Kyiv’s drones keep breaching Moscow’s defenses.The strongman used his speech to business leaders and foreign delegates at the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum Friday to trash an open letter from Zelensky requesting a sit-down aimed at ending the deadly four-year war in Ukraine, branding his request “boorish.”“It is a way to create conditions for personal meetings and talks, or create an environment which makes any personal meetings impossible,” Putin told the crowd during a question-and-answer session.“I think it’s the second.”The Thursday letter – Zelensky’s first written directly to Putin since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – mocked the 73-year-old’s advanced age and stalled progress in the war, and slammed his 26-year grip on the Kremlin, labeling the bloody conflict a “personal choice” and a “war without real cause.”President Trump added Thursday that “it would be great” if Putin and Zelensky sat down for talks.But the Russian strongman shot it down, telling forum attendees he saw “no point” in meeting with his adversary.“First, let experts work, work something out, and then we can meet to sign things,” Putin told the crowd, adding that there was still “work to do,” NBC News reported.Putin also tried to downplay Russia’s economic tailspin while admitting that its deficit might surge this year – desperately claiming “inflation has slowed down significantly,” and expected it to hit about 5.2%.Before taking the stage, he vowed to tighten Russia’s air defenses against continuous long-range Ukrainian drone strikes, acknowledging that some have still slipped past his defensive lines.“To our regret, some of them break through,” he said of the drones, the outlet reported.“Russia has an air defense system...