Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet exclusively with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin – not other Russian officials – during planned talks in Türkiye on Thursday, a senior Ukrainian adviser told Reuters on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy has said he was ready to meet Putin in Istanbul for talks to end the war. U.S. President Donald Trump offered to join proposed Ukraine-Russia peace talks. Russia has not clarified if it plans to attend the talks and at what level.
Earlier Sunday, Putin proposed direct peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, a move quickly endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump but met with caution by Zelenskyy.
Kyiv responded guardedly to the proposal, saying it was willing to talk but only after Moscow agreed to a cease-fire.
Putin made his proposal in a televised statement from the Kremlin that coincided with prime time in the U.S., where President Donald Trump has been pressing both sides to agree to a truce of at least 30 days and stop the three-year-old war.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, called it "A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!"
However, Putin suggested that any cease-fire was a matter for the talks he proposed for Istanbul on Thursday, May 15.
