Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said he’s grateful to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his support and his readiness to facilitate diplomacy at the highest level.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken Erdoğan about the proposed meeting on Thursday in Türkiye to discuss prospects for a cease-fire in the war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.
“We discussed key points of the meeting in Turkey which may help end the war,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “I am grateful for the readiness at the highest level to facilitate diplomacy.”
U.S. President Donald Trump offered to join the prospective Ukraine-Russia talks, a proposal welcomed by Zelenskyy.
The negotiations, planned to take place in Istanbul on Thursday, would be the first direct meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the early months of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.
Putin proposed the talks as a counteroffer to a 30-day cease-fire put forward by Kyiv and its allies, but while Zelenskyy said he would attend “personally,” the Kremlin declined to say whom Russia would send.
Trump told reporters earlier he would go to Türkiye to attend the discussions if he “thought it would be helpful.”