Zelensky proposes face-to-face meeting with Putin in open letter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a renewed effort to end their conflict.

In an open letter to the Russian president, the Ukrainian leader said it would be “wrong to simply wait” until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US’s attention once more, adding peace could only come “through direct engagement between” Ukraine and Russia.

He also called for a full ceasefire during the proposed negotiations, which Putin had previously rejected on Thursday.

However, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a meeting between the two leaders would be “great”.

While the Kremlin confirmed it had received the letter, BBC reports that the tone of the letter was defiant, even mocking, drawing attention to Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian territory.

Zelensky stated that “after 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll” on Putin.

The letter also provided an invitation with Zelenskyy noting that “Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting.”

The report, however, notes that the call for a meeting is not new from Ukraine’s leader. However, the BBC reports that what stood out was Kyiv’s public acknowledgement that the US is “fully focused on the issue of Iran.”

“It would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention,” Zelensky wrote.

As usual, the Kremlin responded, saying Zelensky was welcome to meet Putin in Moscow.

Speaking to foreign journalists in St Petersburg, without apparently having seen the contents of the letter, Putin said he was “certainly prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine”, but said compromises needed to be made.

Also Read: US-Iran war will only end when it ends in Lebanon — Araghchi

However, Putin suggested that while Trump was preoccupied with Iran, the EU could persuade Zelensky to surrender territory.

Putin has long argued that Ukraine should withdraw from four regions largely occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia – and abandon its efforts to join NATO.

Ukraine has refused to cede territory, claiming that doing so would embolden Russia to invade again, as it did in 2022, when it launched a full-scale war eight years after illegally annexing Crimea.

The BBC also reports that the ceasefire talks have stalled in recent months, and previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi, and Istanbul were unsuccessful.

In the letter, which is more than 1,800 words long, Zelensky said: “It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country.

“But I do care about Ukrainians. We are losing our people, and every loss is painful to us.”

According to Zelensky, Russians were fed up with Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, petrol shortages and rising prices, and war.

“Do not be afraid to take the path out of this war. That is the main thing that is required of you now,” he implored.

Zelensky said face-to-face negotiations could take place in a country such as Switzerland or Turkey.

(BBC News)