Ukraine has proposed a new round of peace talks with Russia that would take place next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Two rounds of negotiations have been held in Turkey this year, resulting in agreements on the exchange of prisoners and the remains of soldiers killed in the war, now in its fourth year. But they have produced no tangible progress toward ending the fight.
According to Zelenskyy, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Rustem Umerov, who led the previous rounds of talks, has extended an offer to the Kremlin for another meeting.
And once again, Zelenskyy signaled that he wants to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“A meeting at the leadership level is necessary to truly secure peace—a truly lasting one. Ukraine is ready for such a meeting,” he said.
“The pace of the negotiations must be stepped up. We must do everything to achieve a ceasefire. And the Russian side must stop avoiding decisions.”
At the last round of talks in June, Russia presented a list of hardline demands as conditions for ending the war, including the surrender of four southeastern provinces where Russian forces maintain partial control. Such concessions—not including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014—would amount to the loss of about 15 percent of what Kyiv sees as its sovereign territory.
In addition, Moscow insists that Ukraine renounce its plans to join NATO and reject all forms of Western military assistance. Putin also reiterated his vague objective of “denazifying” Ukraine, a justification he used to escalate the long-running conflict between the two countries into a full-scale war in February 2022.
Kyiv has dismissed these demands as unacceptable.
On July 14, Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte unveiled an initiative in which the United States will sell weapons—including Patriot missile systems—to NATO members, who will then transfer them to Ukraine to replenish its depleted arsenal.
Trump also said that the United States would impose 100 percent tariffs on countries that continue doing business with Russia if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days.
The Kremlin said on Saturday that its diplomatic engagement with Washington and peace talks with Kyiv are separate matters.