Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he is ready to meet personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Turkish territory. He expressed hope that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be able to help organize this high-level meeting, which could become a turning point in the path to resolving the conflict.
This statement came at a time when the international community continues to seek diplomatic ways to halt military operations and sit at the negotiating table for peace talks. Ankara has repeatedly offered its mediation platform to resume dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow, as Turkey maintains partnership relations with both Ukraine and Russia.
Turkey has positioned itself as a neutral mediator since the very beginning of the conflict. Ankara successfully organized several rounds of Ukraine-Russia negotiations in 2022, and also played a significant role in the signing of the "grain deal."
Earlier, Zelensky had excluded negotiations with Putin at the legislative level, but recently, amid diplomatic pressure and changes in the situation, signals about talks have frequently come from Kyiv, provided that the discussion concerns territorial integrity and a just peace.
The Russian side, for its part, has repeatedly stated that it is open to negotiations, but without preconditions and taking into account the "facts created on the ground." So far, there has been no official clear response from the Kremlin to Zelensky's recent proposal to meet in Turkey.
