Ukraine’s president names Türkiye, as well as Gulf and European states, as potential platforms for talks with Russian side
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said that Kyiv will contact a number of countries that may host a potential summit with Russia “this week” to end the ongoing war.
“This week, there will also be contacts with Türkiye, there will be contacts with Gulf countries and European states that could serve as platforms for talks with Russia,” Zelenskyy said in an evening video address shared on US social media company X.
He said that everything will be "prepared to the fullest" on the Ukrainian side to end the over three-and-a-half-year-long armed conflict in his country, adding it is important that this is also confirmed by Kyiv’s partners.
He further said that everything in the future will depend on the will of world leaders, primarily the US, to put pressure on Russia to take part in such negotiations.
“New steps are needed, new pressure – sanctions, tariffs – all of this must be on the table,” Zelenskyy went on to say, noting that he discussed this issue with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg during a meeting in Kyiv a day earlier.
He also claimed that Russia is only giving signals showing it "intends to continue evading real negotiations," which he argued can only be changed with stronger sanctions and tariffs on Moscow.
Last week, the Ukrainian president named Türkiye, Austria, and Switzerland as possible venues for a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin amid intense diplomatic efforts by US President Donald Trump to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Putin conveyed Moscow's readiness to continue direct peace talks with Kyiv during his latest phone call with Trump, adding that the Russian president also conveyed to his US counterpart that potential high-level meetings, especially such as the one between himself and Zelenskyy, must be “very well prepared.”
Türkiye has hosted key diplomatic encounters between Moscow and Kyiv since the early weeks of the ongoing conflict, including three rounds of direct peace talks between the two countries on May 16, June 2, and July 23 in Istanbul.
The three rounds of renewed peace talks in the Turkish metropolis produced major prisoner swaps and an exchange of draft memorandums outlining both sides’ positions for a future peace deal.
- Talks in Qatar
Soon after Zelenskyy's video remarks, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, said on X that he and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov completed the “first part of our international visit,” without elaborating further.
Noting that he and Umerov met with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Yermak described their talks as "substantive."
"We discussed the outcomes of the leaders’ summit in Washington, received an update on the peace process, and talked through the details of security guarantees for Ukraine," Yermak said, noting that they paid special attention to the humanitarian track.
Yermak went on to say they expressed gratitude to Qatar in this regard, adding that their goal to achieve a "sustainable and just peace" remains unchanged.
"Ukraine continues to demonstrate its consistent position to the entire world. Ahead lies a series of visits to other countries," he added.
