Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin even if Kremlin refuses to sign a peace deal.
Zelenskiy made the remarks on Wednesday, days after Ukraine’s surprise drone attacks on Russian airfields and amid Putin’s fresh remarks that the attack would be responded.
“Are we ready to meet at the leadership level without a ceasefire? I would say yes,” the Ukrainian leader told reporters on Wednesday. Zelenskiy had earlier said that a ceasefire should precede any negotiations with Russia.
Putin warned on Wednesday that he would have to respond to Ukraine’ s major drone attacks on Russian airbases. In a phone call with Donald Trump, the Russian leader conceded that the conversation would not lead to “immediate peace”.
Furthermore, Zelenskiy reiterated his earlier remarks that more sanctions must be imposed on Kremlin to bring Russia to the negotiation table.
“I believe that if there is no position on a ceasefire, sanctions should be imposed. In general, I believe that sanctions should be imposed if Russia does not want to end the war, Zelenskiy stressed.
The attack on Russian airbases came a day before the two countries’ representatives met in Istanbul for the second round of peace talks. The negotiations yielded no results in signing unconditional ceasefire – a key condition put forward by Ukraine and its Western allies, however produced an agreement on prisoner swap, which saw the exchange of 1,000 PoWs on both sides.
Russia continues planning for its anticipated summer offensive. On Monday, the Russian delegation handed over Kremlin’s memorandum for peace negotiations to Ukraine, which included demands for territorial concessions, veto over Ukraine’s NATO membership and limits on the size and capabilities of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Trump has repeatedly pushed for a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskiy to discuss peace deal. However, Russian President’s Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that a meeting between the leaders was "unlikely any time soon".
