Zelensky urges Trump to help secure face-to-face talks with Putin

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked his US counterpart Donald Trump to help arrange a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while accusing the Russian leader of not seriously wanting to end the war.

Zelensky believes that a face-to-face conversation is the key to ending the war.

Zelensky said in Kyiv that the West should impose massive sanctions if Putin skips the meeting, emphasising that he would do “everything” possible to make it happen and secure a ceasefire.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in the US delegation at the talks in Istanbul, which “could be some pretty good results,” Trump said in Riyadh as he started a four-day Middle East trip.

The Kremlin has refused to say whether Putin will travel to Turkey, after he himself proposed Russia–Ukraine talks in a weekend Kremlin address.

“This is his war,” Zelensky said, “therefore, the negotiations should be with him.”

Any meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials would be the first direct negotiations since the early months of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

Trump came to office in January promising a swift end to the war, but has become increasingly frustrated at what he sees as the failure of Kyiv and Moscow to compromise over the bloodshed.

Trump said Monday that he was “thinking” about going to the talks.

“I do not know the US president’s decision, but if he confirms his participation, I think it would give additional impetus for Putin to come,” Zelensky told a press conference.

‘Strongest’ sanctions

“Putin does not want the war to end, does not want a ceasefire, does not want any negotiations,” Zelensky said, adding however that he “will do everything to ensure that this meeting takes place”.

Russian airstrikes killed two people in Ukraine’s eastern region of Kharkiv, which is on the border with Russia, authorities said.

Zelensky urged the United States to hit Russia with its “strongest” ever sanctions should Putin not turn up — saying a refusal would be “a clear signal that they do not want and are not going to end the war”.

Putin’s spokesman refused to say who Moscow would send to the talks.

‘De-Nazification’

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia would use the talks to address its key aims and the “root causes” of the conflict — the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine and the “incorporation of new territories into the Russian Federation”.

Kyiv and the West reject those narratives, calling Russia’s invasion an imperial-style land grab.

Putin proposed Russia–Ukraine talks after Kyiv and European countries urged Moscow to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting Monday.

Tens of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine, while Moscow’s army now controls around one-fifth of the country — including the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.

Putin doesn’t ‘dare’ meet

Russia did not explicitly respond to Ukraine and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland calling for Moscow to agree a 30-day ceasefire, though the Kremlin blasted European “ultimatums” in an apparent rejection.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Russia on Tuesday that it would face fresh European sanctions if there was no “real progress” this week towards peace in Ukraine, as he urged Putin to meet Zelensky.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe would impose new sanctions if Moscow did not agree to the 30-day ceasefire.

The European Union has already imposed 16 rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Macron, who has developed a warm working relationship with Zelensky, said that “Ukrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014.”

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas questioned whether Putin had the nerve to show up.

“I think it’s a good move if they sit down,” Kallas told a democracy conference in Copenhagen. “But I don’t think he dares, Putin.”

Zelensky said he would meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday or Thursday and was ready to meet Putin either there or in Istanbul.

Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022 aimed at halting the conflict but did not strike a deal.

Contact between the warring sides has been extremely limited since, mainly dedicated to humanitarian issues like prisoner-of-war exchanges and the return of killed soldiers’ bodies.