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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for direct talks with Vladimir Putin in an unusual open letter to the Russian leader Thursday, offering a full ceasefire during any negotiations as months of U.S.-led diplomacy have failed to bring the warring sides closer to a settlement.
"Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us, and you. I am proposing a meeting," Zelenskyy wrote, adding that he wanted "a clear date" set for such talks. "Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations."
The Kremlin responded that Putin had not yet seen the letter but that Zelenskyy was welcome to travel to Moscow "any time," a proposition Zelenskyy had already anticipated and rejected in the letter itself.
Direct written appeals from Zelenskyy to the Russian president are rare. The Ukrainian leader has long insisted that only face-to-face talks can resolve the core dispute over territory, but the two sides have not met since the early weeks of the war.
Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has demanded Ukraine withdraw from its eastern Donbas region, large parts of which Ukrainian forces still control, as a precondition to any peace negotiations.
The letter was published a day after Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal and naval base in Saint Petersburg, Putin's hometown and this week's host of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual gathering of global business and political figures informally known as the Russian Davos.
Speaking to foreign journalists in Saint Petersburg shortly before Zelenskyy's letter was made public, Putin acknowledged that Russia needed to improve its air defence capabilities. "Russia has an air defence system. Yes, we must improve it. Yes, we must strengthen it. And we will do so," he said.
Putin also repeated his longstanding challenge to Zelenskyy's political legitimacy, saying the question of whether the Ukrainian president remained his country's lawful leader required "analysis," pointing to the expiration of Zelenskyy's initial five-year term in 2024.
Ukrainian martial law bars elections during wartime, and Zelenskyy has said he would be prepared to hold a vote or referendum on any final peace agreement if a full ceasefire is first established.
Putin has previously said he would only agree to meet Zelenskyy to sign off on a deal already negotiated in advance, dismissing calls for preliminary talks.
Despite projecting confidence about Russian military progress, Putin faced pointed questions at the forum about whether Moscow's campaign had become a strategic failure.
He pushed back, saying Russian forces were "advancing along the entire line of contact" and insisting his country was "absolutely ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine through peaceful means."
The battlefield data tells a more complicated story. The pace of Russia's advance has slowed markedly since late 2025, and an AFP analysis of figures from the Institute for the Study of War found that Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May, the second consecutive month that trend held.
Ukraine has also intensified long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and military targets in recent months, framing the campaign as a proportionate response to nightly Russian bombardments.
Zelenskyy underscored that posture in his letter Thursday. "If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war," he wrote, "Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence."
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