Zelensky Heads To Turkey As Ukraine Seeks Fresh Momentum For Peace Efforts

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold talks in Turkey on Wednesday and is expected to meet senior U.S. Army officials in Kyiv on Thursday, as part of renewed efforts to revive stalled peace negotiations with Russia.

Direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow have not taken place since a meeting in Istanbul in July. In the meantime, Russian forces have continued their offensive, with overnight strikes killing 19 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Despite growing diplomatic movement around possible peace discussions, Russia has shown no indication that it is prepared to soften its long-standing conditions for ending the war. Moscow has also dismissed reports suggesting that Washington is developing a detailed peace roadmap.

Announcing his trip, Zelensky said he aims to “reinvigorate negotiations” and will engage Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on steps toward achieving what he described as a “just peace” for Ukraine. “Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer remains our top priority,” he said.

Turkey, a NATO member that has maintained working relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, hosted the earliest round of peace talks in the first weeks of the invasion in 2022. No additional negotiations took place until this year, when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump initiated a fresh push to end the conflict.

The Kremlin confirmed that no Russian delegates would take part in the Ankara discussions but said President Vladimir Putin remained open to hearing the outcomes in later talks with the United States or Turkey. A report circulating this week suggested Washington had been quietly consulting with Russia on a new pathway toward ending the war, but Moscow downplayed the claim.

When asked about the report, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were “no new developments” on any peace proposals since Putin and Trump met in Alaska in August. “There are no innovations to announce at this time,” he added.

Putin has maintained the demands he laid out in June 2024, including that Ukraine abandon any intention of joining NATO and withdraw its forces from four regions Russia claims as its territory. Moscow has not signaled any shift from these conditions, which Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.