Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thursday’s letter, the first public letter Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022, was a sweeping critique of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power.
Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting US priorities, saying it would be wrong to simply wait for the Trump administration to return its attention to ending the Ukraine war while it is remains heavily focused on the Iran war.
“I am proposing a meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Zelenskyy appeared to be trying to seize a pivotal moment in the war, as Ukraine has begun to regain some battlefield leverage largely through improved long-range strike capabilities that have complicated Russia’s advances.
At the same time, Moscow has intensified its deadly aerial campaign across Ukraine, seeking to exploit Kiev’s shortages and continued vulnerability to ballistic missile attacks.
He said the talks could be hosted by a neutral third country, ruling out both Moscow and Kiev as venues and suggested Switzerland, Türkiye or Arab states as possible hosts for negotiations.
“It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be,” he wrote. “I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting.”
He said Ukrainian intelligence indicated Russia was considering plans to prolong the war into 2027 and 2028, while increasingly relying on ballistic missile strikes to achieve what its ground campaign had failed to accomplish.
Related
Growing fatigue
Zelenskyy also accused Moscow of seeking to draw Belarus deeper into the conflict and of attempting to destabilise the situation around Transnistria, the breakaway Moldovan region backed by Russia.
The Ukrainian leader argued that Russia was increasingly feeling the costs of the war, pointing to drone attacks deep inside Russian territory, economic strain, fuel shortages, rising prices, and the necessity of more military mobilisation.
Zelenskyy claimed Russia suffered more than 30,000 soldiers killed or seriously wounded in May alone, saying Ukraine had “video confirmation” of the battlefield losses and that such casualty levels had been sustained month after month.
