Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The letter, the first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, was a sweeping critique of the Russian leader's 26 years in power.
Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting U.S. priorities, saying it would be wrong to simply wait for the Trump administration to return its attention to ending the Ukraine war while it remains heavily focused on the Iran war.
"I am proposing a meeting," Zelenskyy wrote.
He 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 Kyiv's shortages and continued vulnerability to ballistic missile attacks.
Zelenskyy said the talks could be hosted by a neutral third country, ruling out both Moscow and Kyiv 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."
In response, the Kremlin said Zelenskyy is welcome to meet Putin in Moscow "any time."
"Zelenskyy can come at any time to Moscow," state media quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying, adding that Putin had not yet been shown the Ukrainian president's letter.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it "would be great" if Putin and Zelenskyy met, but noted that both sides had to make compromises.
"They should get it done," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"I'm glad that they're maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it," he said.
Trump, who has faced criticism for berating Zelenskyy in the Oval last year on the one hand while inviting Putin to a summit in Alaska, promised to end the Ukraine war within a day of taking office.
He has pushed both sides to end the conflict, but his attention has largely been absorbed by the Iran war that the United States and Israel launched more than three months ago.
"They're going to both make compromises, I suggested those compromises, and you know, we've had a lot to do with it," Trump said.
In the letter, Zelenskyy 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.
Zelenskyy also accused Moscow of seeking to draw Belarus deeper into the conflict and of attempting to destabilize 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 mobilization.
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.
He added that Ukraine also continues to suffer painful losses despite what he described as a favorable casualty ratio.
He said Ukraine was prepared to implement a full cease-fire for the duration of negotiations and proposed an all-for-all prisoner exchange as a first step toward ending the conflict.
Zelenskyy also called for the return of civilians and children taken from Ukraine during the war.
"The world has not grown tired of Ukraine, as you long hoped it would. But there is growing fatigue with Russia," he said.
