Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sent an open letter to his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, offering to meet face-to-face for direct ceasefire negotiations to end the ongoing war between both countries.
He is also demanding an immediate halt to hostilities, pushing for direct engagement rather than waiting for other global issues to be resolved
The letter, the first Zelenskyy has publicly written directly to Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, was a sweeping criticism of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power.
Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting US priorities, saying it would be wrong to simply wait for the Trump administration to return its attention to ending the Ukraine war while it remained heavily focused on the Iran war.
“I am proposing a meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote while proposing that the meeting takes place in neutral third country, even as United States (US) President Donald Trump says both sides have to ‘make compromises’
In the letter, which ruled out Moscow and Kyiv as venues, Zelenskyy suggested that the proposed talks and negotiations could be hosted by Switzerland, Turkey or Arab states.
He wrote: “It is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be. I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting.”
President Zelenskyy said in his letter that 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.
He accused Moscow of seeking to draw Belarus deeper into the conflict and also attempting to destabilise 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 mobilisation.
Zelenskyy claimed Russia had more than 30,000 soldiers killed or seriously wounded in May alone, saying Ukraine has “video confirmation” of the battlefield losses and such casualty levels had been sustained month after month.
Admitting that Ukraine is also suffering painful losses despite what he described as a favourable casualty ratio, Zelenskky said Ukraine is willing to implement a full ceasefire for the duration of negotiations.
He further proposed an all-for-all prisoner exchange as a first step toward ending the conflict while demanding 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,” Zelenskyy said, addressing Putin.
But the tension is not lessening and President Zelenskyy appears trying to seize a pivotal moment in the war as Ukraine begin to regain some battlefield leverage, largely through improved long-range strike capabilities that have complicated Russia’s advances.
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not seen the letter yet and repeated his statement that President Zelenskyy could come to Moscow if he wanted talks.
Ukrainian Drones Hit St Petersburg As ‘Russian Davos’ Opens In City
On their part, Moscow has intensified its deadly aerial campaign across Ukraine, seeking to exploit Kyiv’s shortages and continued vulnerability to ballistic missile attacks.
Putin said on Thursday that Russia would strengthen its air defences to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks, which have reached deep inside his country and cast a cloud over his showcase economic forum in his home town of St Petersburg.
According to him, Russia needed to improve and strengthen its air defence system, ‘and we will do that’.
Speaking during a meeting with heads of international news agencies, Putin acknowledged the damage from Ukrainian drone attacks saying: “To our regret, some of them break through. Russia has an air defence system, we need to improve it, strengthen it, and we will do that.”
The wide-ranging media session came on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin’s annual showcase for investment. Hours before the forum opened on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and also hit a nearby naval base.
He also said Russia was open for a compromise on Ukraine in line with the understandings reached at his summit with US President, Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, and Ukraine needed to accept them to make a deal to end the conflict, now in its fifth year. – With AP report
