Zelenskyy to Putin: Meet me in Turkey—but only if you halt the fighting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” in Turkey this week, as part of renewed efforts to revive stalled peace talks, AFP reported.

The statement comes in response to comments by US President Donald Trump, who urged direct negotiations between the two leaders to end what he called the “bloodbath” in Ukraine.

“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy,” Zelenskyy posted on X. “There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Turkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.”

The Kremlin has yet to respond to Zelenskyy’s offer or the 30-day ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and its allies. It remains unclear whether Zelenskyy will attend the proposed talks if Russia refuses to commit to the truce.

Moscow and Kyiv have not engaged in face-to-face negotiations since March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That meeting in Istanbul produced a tentative agreement, later abandoned, which would have required Ukraine to adopt a neutral status and renounce its NATO aspirations.

Putin, in a statement early Sunday, called for a resumption of those same Istanbul talks, proposing they begin on Thursday, May 15. He emphasized Russia’s readiness to negotiate “without any preconditions,” though he did not address the specific ceasefire plan advocated by Ukraine and Western leaders.

“We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022,” Putin said, as quoted by AFP. “We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire.”

While Putin accused Western nations of seeking to prolong the war and criticized what he called “ultimatums” and “anti-Russian rhetoric,” Western leaders continued to press Moscow to agree to an immediate halt in hostilities.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also weighed in, telling Putin by phone that Ankara is prepared to host talks aimed at achieving a “lasting solution.”