President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Türkiye, expressing hope that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could help organize the negotiations.
In an interview with CNN Türk, Zelensky called direct negotiations at the presidential level necessary, arguing that previous contacts between the two sides had failed to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
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“We are ready for this meeting in Turkey. I know that President Erdoğan has his own ties with Putin. That is why we support holding a meeting in Turkey,” Zelensky said.
He said a face-to-face meeting could help resolve outstanding issues in negotiations between country delegations and technical working groups.
“This is precisely why I want to meet him – as the person who makes the decisions,” Zelensky said.
He said a ceasefire along the front line and a mechanism to monitor compliance with any agreement should be among the main topics of a possible meeting.
He also said the leaders should discuss security guarantees, the reconstruction of Ukraine and the status of the occupied territories. However, Zelensky ruled out accepting Putin’s demands that Ukraine cede Donbass or recognize Crimea as Russian territory, saying such concessions would violate Ukraine’s Constitution.
The fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without Kyiv
Zelensky also raised the possibility of participating in the G20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December, saying Ukraine had not yet received an official invitation from Washington.
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He added that there were signals suggesting US President Donald Trump could invite Ukraine, potentially alongside a move to end the war.
“The discussion touched on the possibility that President Trump would invite us to the G20 summit and perhaps propose an initiative to end the war. Naturally, if Trump issues an official invitation, we will welcome it,” Zelensky said.
The United States invited Putin to the September summit, raising the possibility of a meeting between the Russian leader and Trump. The Kremlin previously rejected Zelensky’s proposal to meet with Putin on the sidelines of the meeting.
On Saturday, October 31, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington could invite Zelensky if his participation could help produce positive results. Trump also did not rule out this possibility on November 1.
Zelensky stressed that any negotiations to end the war must include Ukraine, rejecting the idea that other countries could decide its future without kyiv’s participation.
“It’s impossible. You cannot decide the fate of Ukraine without Ukraine. It would be unfair and would lead nowhere. It is illogical to negotiate the fate of a country without the country itself being present,” he said.
He added that similar attempts by other leaders in the past had not yielded results.
Zelensky also highlighted Russia’s failure to achieve its initial military goals, despite its claims that it could conquer Ukraine within days.
“Russia, for example, considered itself a great power and claimed that it would conquer Ukraine in three days. We are now entering the fifth year of the war. For five years, Russia has been unable to conquer Ukraine,” he said.
He added that no third country has the right to negotiate issues under Ukrainian sovereignty without Ukraine’s direct participation.
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