These are the countries Zelenskyy eyes for face-to-face talks with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said that Kyiv will contact a number of countries that may host a potential summit with Russia “this week” to end the ongoing war.

“This week, there will also be contacts with Türkiye, there will be contacts with Gulf countries and European states that could serve as platforms for talks with Russia,” Zelenskyy said in an evening video address shared on social media platform X.

He said that everything will be “prepared to the fullest” on the Ukrainian side to end the over three-and-a-half-year-long armed conflict in his country, adding it is important that this is also confirmed by Kyiv’s partners, Anadolu writes.

He further said that everything in the future will depend on the will of world leaders, primarily the US, to put pressure on Russia to take part in such negotiations.

“New steps are needed, new pressure – sanctions, tariffs – all of this must be on the table,” Zelenskyy went on to say, noting that he discussed this issue with US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg during a meeting in Kyiv a day earlier.

He also claimed that Russia is only giving signals showing it “intends to continue evading real negotiations,” which he argued can only be changed with stronger sanctions and tariffs on Moscow.

Last week, the Ukrainian president named Türkiye, Austria, and Switzerland as possible venues for a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin amid intense diplomatic efforts by US President Donald Trump to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.

In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Putin conveyed Moscow’s readiness to continue direct peace talks with Kyiv during his latest phone call with Trump, adding that the Russian president also conveyed to his US counterpart that potential high-level meetings, especially such as the one between himself and Zelenskyy, must be “very well prepared.”