Zelenskiy tells Putin to come to Turkey if he wants talks, after Trump intervention

By Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump told him publicly to immediately accept the Kremlin leader's proposal of direct talks.

Zelenskiy's suggestion of a meeting with Putin capped a dramatic 48 hours in which European leaders joined Zelenskiy in demanding a 30-day ceasefire from Monday, only for Putin to make a counter-proposal to instead hold the first direct Ukraine-Russia talks since the early months of the 2022 invasion.

It was far from clear, however, that Putin meant he would attend in person. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

"I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally," Zelenskiy wrote on X. "I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses."

On Telegram, his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, added: "What about Putin? Is he afraid? We'll see."

The Ukrainian leader had responded guardedly earlier on Sunday after the Russian president, in a night-time televised statement that coincided with prime time in the U.S., proposed direct talks in Istanbul next Thursday, May 15.

Putin's suggestion came hours after major European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that he agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face "massive" new sanctions, a position that Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg endorsed.

TRUMP DEMANDS TALKS BEGIN

Zelenskiy too had said Ukraine was ready for talks, if Moscow agreed to the 30-day ceasefire.

Yet Trump, who has the power to continue or sever Washington's crucial supply of arms to Ukraine, took a different line.

"President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!"

Russia and Ukraine have both courted Trump.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the U.S. military backing it received from his predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world's biggest economy.

Putin sent Russia's armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

But with Russian forces grinding forward, the Kremlin chief has offered few, if any, concessions so far.

In his overnight address, he proposed what he said would be "direct negotiations without any preconditions".

But almost immediately, senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks must take into account both an abandoned 2022 draft peace framework and the current situation on the ground.

This language is shorthand for Kyiv agreeing to permanent neutrality in return for a security guarantee and accepting that Russia controls swathes of Ukraine.

Ukraine says agreeing to the terms of the 2022 draft would be tantamount to capitulation.

PUTIN REJECTS 'ULTIMATUMS'

Putin dismissed what he said was an attempt to lay down "ultimatums" in the form of Western European and Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire starting on Monday. His foreign ministry spelled out that talks about the root causes of the conflict must precede discussions of a ceasefire.

Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, earlier responded to Putin's address by saying that this could be "A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!".

Though Russia did not commit to it, Zelenskiy said Ukraine's ceasefire plan for Monday still stood.

"We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy," he wrote on X.

Speaking in his nightly address, Zelenskiy said he was still waiting for a response from the Russian side - and that Ukrainian forces would respond in kind if Russian troops did not observe a truce.

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv issued a warning on Friday of a "potentially significant" Russian air attack in the coming days.

(Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Dmitry Antonov, Lidia Kelly, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Felix Light; Elizabeth Piper in Kyiv and Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara; Editing by Kevin Liffey)