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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in an open letter to the Russian leader Thursday, saying he was also ready for a “full ceasefire”.
The letter marks one of the few times Zelensky has appealed directly to Putin since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine have been stalled for months, as US-led negotiations remain effectively frozen due to the Iran war.
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Previous rounds of negotiation between the two sides in Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Geneva failed to yield a breakthrough on the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky said in the letter, which was published on the Ukrainian presidency’s website.
“Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations,” he added.
Zelensky also proposed an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war, saying this could be a “good prologue to ending the war”.
There was no immediate comment from Putin, who was wrapping up a meeting with foreign journalists in Saint Petersburg when the letter was published.
Zelensky has repeatedly called for a meeting with Putin, saying only face-to-face talks will yield an agreement on territory.
Putin has suggested he would only meet Zelensky once a peace agreement was ready.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia as he held talks with U.S. envoys on ending the war.
Zelenskyy sat down with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader posted pictures of the negotiating table with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sitting next to him facing the U.S. delegation.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the U.S. and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expects the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for the alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.
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Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.
The U.S. government said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
