Zelensky Proposes Face-to-Face Talks in Open Letter to Putin

The letter also provided an invitation.

“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us – and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky wrote.

It’s not a new offer from Ukraine’s leader.

As it has before, the Kremlin responded, saying Zelensky was welcome to meet Putin in Moscow.

What was notable 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.

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.

Putin suggested that as Trump was busy with Iran, the EU could talk Zelensky into surrendering territory.

Putin’s longstanding position has been that Ukraine should withdraw from four regions largely occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – and give up its efforts to join Nato.

Ukraine has ruled out ceding territory, saying it would embolden Russia to invade again, as it had in 2022 when it launched its full-scale war eight years after illegally annexing Crimea.

Ceasefire negotiations have stalled in recent months, and previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul have failed.

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.”