{"id":483507,"date":"2026-06-04T23:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483507\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:35:08","slug":"zelenskyy-calls-for-face-to-face-ukraine-war-negotiations-in-letter-to-putin-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/483507\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy calls for face-to-face Ukraine war negotiations in letter to Putin | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

The letter, the first Zelenskyy has publicly written directly to Putin since Russia<\/a> launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, was a sweeping criticism of the Russian leader\u2019s 26 years in power.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> war while it remained heavily focused on the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proposing a meeting,\u201d Zelenskyy wrote.<\/p>\n

He appeared to be trying to seize a pivotal moment in the war as Ukraine has begun to regain some battlefield leverage, largely through improved long-range strike capabilities that have complicated Russia\u2019s advances. At the same time, Moscow has intensified its deadly aerial campaign across Ukraine, seeking to exploit Kyiv\u2019s shortages<\/a> and continued vulnerability to ballistic missile attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin said Russia needed to improve and strengthen its air defence system, \u2018and we will do that\u2019. Photograph: Sergey Bobylev\/Sputnik\/Kremlin Pool\/EPA<\/p>\n

Speaking during a meeting with heads of international news agencies, Putin acknowledged the damage from Ukrainian drone attacks. \u201cTo our regret, some of them break through,\u201d Putin said of the strikes. \u201cRussia has an air defence system, we need to improve it, strengthen it, and we will do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wide-ranging media session came on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin\u2019s annual showcase for investment. Hours before the forum opened on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack<\/a> set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and also hit a nearby naval base.<\/p>\n

Putin also said Russia was open for a compromise on Ukraine in line with the understandings reached<\/a> at his summit with Donald Trump<\/a> in Anchorage, Alaska, and Ukraine needed to accept them to make a deal to end the conflict, now in its fifth year.<\/p>\n

Trump said on Thursday it would be \u201cgreat\u201d for Zelenskyy to meet Putin \u2013 but said both sides had to make compromises, without explaining further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad that they\u2019re maybe talking about meeting. I think we had a lot to do with it,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cI think it would be great if they met. They should \u2013 get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to both make compromises, I suggested those compromises, and you know, we\u2019ve had a lot to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainian drones hit oil terminal infrastructure in St Petersburg on Wednesday. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

In his letter, Zelenskyy said the proposed talks could be hosted by a neutral third country, ruling out Moscow and Kyiv as venues, and suggested Switzerland, Turkey or Arab states as possible hosts for negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is leaders who resolve the key issues. That has always been the case, and it always will be,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI propose to set a clear date for such a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not seen the letter yet and repeated his statement that Zelenskyy could come to Moscow if he wanted talks.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said in the 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.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also accused Moscow of seeking to draw Belarus deeper into the conflict<\/a> and of attempting to destabilise the situation around Transnistria<\/a>, the breakaway Moldovan region backed by Russia.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy claimed Russia had seen more than 30,000 soldiers killed or seriously wounded in May alone, saying Ukraine had \u201cvideo confirmation\u201d of the battlefield losses and that such casualty levels had been sustained month after month.<\/p>\n

He said Ukraine also continued to suffer painful losses despite what he described as a favourable casualty ratio.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was prepared to implement a full ceasefire for the duration of negotiations and proposed an all-for-all prisoner exchange as a first step toward ending the conflict. He also called for the return of civilians and children taken from Ukraine during the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has not grown tired of Ukraine, as you long hoped it would. But there is growing fatigue with Russia,\u201d Zelenskyy said, addressing Putin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-483507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}