Kyiv: Ukraine seeks expanded peace talks with Russia
Ukraine is gearing up for a potential meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.
Sybiha stated that Kyiv is considering an expanded format for talks, potentially with international mediators. "We allow for the possibility of this meeting being in an expanded format. We would very much like President Trump to join it, and we have always insisted that Europe must be at the table of possible future negotiations," he said.
Sybiha alleged that Moscow seeks to exclude the United States from the conflict resolution process, while Kyiv deems Washington's involvement fundamentally necessary. "We need U.S. involvement, we welcome the U.S. and President Trump's peaceful efforts," the Ukrainian diplomat stressed. He also noted that there should be no preconditions for continuing talks in Turkey: "A clear agreement was reached there, if we put aside all pseudo-historical lectures voiced by the Russian delegation."
Talks were held in Istanbul on May 16. According to The Economist, the Russian delegation demanded that Moscow be given control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, which Russia is unable to capture. Source claims that Medinsky threatened to seize two more Ukrainian regions if concessions were refused and stated that Russia was ready to "fight indefinitely."
Sybiha reminded that in Istanbul, the parties agreed on a prisoner exchange, and this process has already started. According to him, the next step should be Russia presenting its vision of a future ceasefire—a similar document is being prepared in Kyiv. The third item on the agenda, according to the minister, will be organizing a personal meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
On May 11, Putin rejected Ukraine's and the European Union's call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, suggesting instead a resumption of talks in Istanbul. In response, Zelensky expressed readiness to meet with the Russian president, but Putin refused and sent a delegation led by his aide Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's representative at the 2022 talks with Ukraine.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that a personal meeting between Putin and Zelensky is only possible as a result of the delegations' work and with clear agreements in place.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has recently been actively promoting its narrative of President Zelensky's "illegitimacy." "For us, it is fundamentally important who exactly from the Ukrainian side will sign the achieved agreements," emphasized Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. This position was supported by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who reminded that Moscow considers Zelensky an "illegitimate" head of state.
In Europe, there is a belief that Putin is not truly striving for a peace deal with Ukraine. The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported on May 21 that U.S. President Donald Trump shares this belief. According to the publication, following a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin on May 19, Trump informed European leaders that the Russian president does not intend to end the war in Ukraine, as he believes he is winning it. As noted by the WSJ, European leaders heard confirmation of their assumptions from the White House for the first time. However, Trump's words contradicted his public statements that Putin was supposedly sincerely striving for peace.