Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he’d travel to Turkey this week for peace talks with Moscow, and he challenged Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to meet with him personally.
“There is no point in prolonging the killings,” Zelensky wrote on X. “And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday.”
The post came less than one hour after President Donald Trump pressured Zelensky to take up Putin’s Saturday offer of direct talks. “Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!”
Russia, which holds the military advantage in its war against Ukraine, has rejected a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire. Kremlin officials say they want a peace deal that addresses what Moscow considers the “root causes” of the war, namely, NATO’s eastward expansion and violations of Russians’ rights inside Ukraine.
Trump has said he might attend the Thursday meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, according to Barak Ravid of Axios. But whether Putin will actually travel to Turkey is unclear.
Early in the war, Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul nearly produced a peace agreement but stalled in April 2022, two months after Putin’s invasion. That May, Ukrainian media reported on two factors that caused negotiations to falter: First, reports of Russian atrocities in the city Bucha hardened Ukrainians’ resolve. Second, Britain’s then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew to Kiev and told Ukrainian officials to keep fighting.
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