Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his country is scheduled to hold a new round of peacetalks with Russia on Wednesday.
“Today, I discussed with [Ukrainian Security Council chief] Rustem Umerov the preparations for the exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side. Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,” Zelensky said in his daily address on Monday.
The Kremlin earlier on Monday appeared to confirm that planning for another round of negotiations was underway, adding that it would inform the public when specific dates were chosen. But it also sought to temper expectations ahead of those talks, saying that “a lot of diplomatic work still lies ahead.”
However, an anonymous source told Russia’s state news agency TASS that the talks would take place Thursday.
Zelensky announced on Saturday that Ukraine had proposed a new round of peace talks with Moscow for the upcoming week, emphasizing that he was willing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in person.
“A meeting at the level of leaders is needed to truly ensure peace — a really lasting one,” Zelensky said in a nightly address. “Ukraine is ready for such a meeting.”
“Dialogue with the Russian side on prisoner exchanges is ongoing — we are continuing to implement the agreements reached during the earlier meeting in Istanbul,” Zelensky said. “Our team is currently working on another exchange.”
Russia and Ukraine have held two rounds of direct peace talks this year, the first on May 16 and the second on June 2. Both rounds took place in Istanbul.
While the two warring sides agreed to major prisoner exchanges during the talks, there has so far been no breakthrough in reaching a broad ceasefire agreement, let alone an end to the full-scale invasion, which Putin launched in February 2022.
The reports of a possible third round of peace negotiations came a week after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Putin, demanding that the Kremlin leader end the war against Ukraine in 50 days or face a new round of sanctions.
