Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky traveled to Turkish capital Ankara to meet President Receptacle Erdogan and said he could meet in person with his Russian counterpart with Istanbul’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
“We will do everything to ensure that this meeting will be held,” he told reporters during a rushed ascent briefing in Kiev.
Russia has yet to say who will fly to Istanbul, but it says it will be announced soon. [Putin] Putin and Zelensky believe they have not met in themselves since December 2019.
In the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the last in-person meeting between the two countries took place in March 2022 in Istanbul.
Putin initially wanted in-person meetings in Turkey’s biggest city “without prior conditions” but Zelensky announced he would go in person, and hoped that the Russian president would travel as well.
The United States is also expected to send high-level delegations.
By confirming his visit to Türkiye at a briefing on Tuesday, Zelensky clearly sought to intensify pressure on Russia. The Kremlin has already warned that putting pressure on Moscow would be “useless” and would not respond to the ultimatum.
Instead, Russia has sought to focus on long-term reconciliation that addresses what Moscow considers as the “root cause” of war. This is a string of strict prerequisites announced before the 2022 invasion and repeatedly rejected by Kiev.
The Ukrainian leader said while ready to meet Putin in Istanbul, his priority is to secure a 30-day ceasefire, and that all Ukrainian allies (including the US) have been agreed.
Zelensky said he believes that Putin’s late-night offer on Sunday was designed to capture Kiev for an in-person meeting in Turkey, and that he would “not respond in a negative way for Ukraine.”
US President Donald Trump, visiting the Gulf, suggests that he can fly to Istanbul himself “if you think things are going to happen.”
That seems unlikely for now, and unconfirmed reports suggest that two senior US envoys, Steve Witkov and Keith Kellogg, are planning to be in Istanbul on the day.
The Kremlin tried to wet speculation that Putin himself might go.
“Russia continues to prepare for negotiations scheduled for Thursday, and that’s all we can say now,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Foreign Minister Sergei Liabakov said on Tuesday that Moscow is ready to take into account “responsibly” and “reality on the ground” in a veiled reference to the four southeastern regions of Ukraine that have been partially seized by Russia since 2022.
He also repeated his first pre-invasion demand for a Moscow settlement to be achieved – Ukraine and its western allies view this as the ultimate equal to Kiev’s de facto surrender.
Lyabkov also questioned Ukraine’s ability to stick to the agreement.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Karas said that it would be a good move for Zelensky and Putin to sit and talk, but added, “He wouldn’t dare Putin, Putin.”
Zelensky also accused Putin of being “scary” to meet him. His chief of staff, Andri Yamak, said that if the Russian leader refuses to go to Istanbul, it would be a “final signal” that he would not want to end the war.
Leaders of Ukraine’s major allies, Britain, Germany, Poland and France, traveled to Kiev over the weekend to warn of further sanctions if Russia did not accept a 30-day ceasefire.
The European Union is currently working on its 17th package of measures.
