Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has told British journalist Piers Morgan that he would would agree to direct talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin to end the countries' nearly three-year long war.

Morgan asked him how he would feel if he sat opposite Putin at the negotiating table, to which Zelensky responded: "If that is the only set-up in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this set-up," but noted that other "participants" would need to be present.

So while it was somewhat of an imagined or theoretical scenario, it was the first time Zelensky has ever responded with a positive answer or expressed a willingness to such a proposition. Zelensky has never so much as theoretically acknowledged he's ready to sit at the negotiating table when asked in prior media interviews.

Still, this marks an apparent shift given that throughout the war Zelensky has completely ruled out direct negotiations with Moscow so long as Putin is still in power. He even enshrined it in Ukrainian law.

But recently Zelensky suggested that this ban applies to all Ukrainian officials except himself, in the wake of the 2022 decree declaring it "impossible" to engage the Kremlin so long as Putin still holds the Russian presidency.

Putin last week highlighted this prior legislation of Kiev in saying:

"It’s possible to negotiate with anyone. However, due to his illegitimacy, [Zelensky] has no right to sign anything. If he wishes to participate in talks, I will deploy people who will conduct such negotiations."

Zelensky in the newly publish interview with Piers Morgan added the following caveat: "I will not be kind to him. I consider him an enemy."

And he underscored: "And to be honest, I believe he considers me an enemy as well" - strongly suggesting that talks are not in reality anywhere close to being on the horizon.

Here's the interview segment where Morgan asked the Ukrainian leader about sitting down with Putin:

But in the same interview Zelensky also urged the West to give Ukraine nuclear weapons to defend itself. So if he's asking for nukes in almost the same breath, direct Moscow negotiations still seem far away in the Ukrainian leader's mind indeed...

"Give us back nuclear arms," Zelensky said while discussing scenarios of how the Ukraine war could end.

Zelensky also reiterated his longtime stance that Ukraine must be admitted into NATO, and have firm security guarantees to prevent any future Russian invasion in a post-war system.

Given all of this bluster, Putin is unlikely to see this as a serious overture, even as the new Trump administration is applying pressure to get each side to the negotiating table as fast as possible.

Last week, Putin had explained as part of the aforementioned remarks, "If we start negotiations now, they will be illegitimate… Because when the current head of the regime – that’s the only way to call [Zelensky] today – signed this decree, he was a somewhat legitimate president. But now he can’t cancel it because he is illegitimate. That’s the trick, the catch, the trap."