Zelensky challenges Putin to meet personally in Istanbul after Trump urges peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday that he will travel to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia on Thursday and expects Vladimir Putin to do the same after US President Donald Trump urged Kyiv to accept Moscow’s proposal of direct negotiations to end the war.

“I will be in Türkiye this Thursday, May 15”, Zelensky said in his nightly address to Ukrainians, “and I expect Putin to come to Türkiye as well. Personally. And I hope that this time, Putin won’t be looking for excuses as to why he ‘can’t’ make it”.

While Zelensky had previously insisted on a full, unconditional ceasefire as a precondition to talks, he suggested on Sunday that he would be ready to meet with Putin even without a truce, stressing that Ukraine had “absolutely no problem engaging in negotiations [in] any format”.

Kyiv was, however, still awaiting a “clear response” from Moscow to its latest proposal of a ceasefire from Monday, Zelensky said.

In the early hours of Sunday, Putin gave an overnight address offering to hold talks with Ukraine “without preconditions” in Istanbul on 15 May, though he did not directly mention the Europe- and US-brokered proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday nor the prospect of “massive” sanctions against Russia should Moscow reject it.

Later the same day, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova reiterated the Kremlin’s position that Moscow would only agree to a ceasefire after Russia and Ukraine began direct negotiations on the “root causes” of the war.

On Sunday evening, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was “starting to doubt” whether Ukraine would be able to reach a peace settlement with Putin — who he said did not want a ceasefire and was “too busy celebrating the Victory of World War ll” — but that Kyiv should agree to talks regardless to “determine whether or not a deal is possible”.

“If it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly”, Trump said.

The Trump administration has in recent weeks repeatedly threatened to abandon its mediation efforts should a breakthrough not be made soon, insisting that Moscow and Kyiv instead resume direct negotiations for the first time since March 2022, when they last met in Istanbul shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.