The Kremlin said on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy, 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 Zelenskiy 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.

MSH 

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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