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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that discussions are planned this week with countries that could host a potential summit with Russia aimed at ending the ongoing war.
“Now, this week, there will be contacts with Türkiye, there will be contacts with the Gulf countries, with the countries of Europe, which can be platforms for talks with the Russians,” Zelenskyy said in an evening video address shared on Telegram.
He added that everything on the Ukrainian side will be “prepared to the maximum” to end the more than three-and-a-half-year conflict, stressing the importance of confirmation from Kyiv’s international partners.
Zelenskyy said the next steps will depend on the will of world leaders, particularly the United States, to pressure Russia to participate in negotiations.
“New steps are needed, new pressure: sanctions, tariffs – all this must be on the table,” he said, noting that he discussed the issue with U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg during a meeting in Kyiv the day before.
He also said Russia has signaled it may try to evade negotiations, which he argued can only be countered by stronger international pressure.
Last week, Zelenskyy named Türkiye, Austria, and Switzerland as possible venues for a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart amid intensive diplomatic efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to mediate between the two countries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow’s readiness to continue direct peace talks with Kyiv during his latest phone call with Trump. Lavrov added that potential high-level meetings, including a summit between Putin and Zelenskyy, must be “very well prepared.”
Türkiye has hosted key diplomatic encounters between Moscow and Kyiv since the early weeks of the conflict, including three rounds of direct peace talks on May 16, June 2, and July 23 in Istanbul. These talks led to major prisoner swaps and the exchange of draft memorandums outlining both sides’ positions for a future peace deal.
In a related development, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday that meetings will be held this week on the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran, and Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
“Russia-Ukraine, Iran, Israel-Hamas. We’re having meetings all this week on all three of those conflicts, and we hope to settle them before the end of this year,” Witkoff said at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Trump at the White House.
“There are all these people who have never really seen the world change in this way, peace through strength really, really works,” he said.
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