President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Turkey and expressed hope that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could help organize the talks. In an interview with CNN Türk, Zelensky described direct negotiations at the presidential level as necessary, arguing that previous contacts between the two sides had failed to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. JOIN US ON TELEGRAM Follow our war coverage at @Kyivpost_official. “We are ready for this meeting in Turkey. I know that President Erdoğan has his own ties with Putin. That is why we support holding a meeting in Turkey,” Zelensky said. He argued that a face-to-face meeting could help resolve issues that have been left unresolved in negotiations between country delegations and technical working groups. “That’s precisely why I want to meet with him: as the decision-maker,” Zelensky said. He said a ceasefire along the front line and a mechanism to monitor compliance with any agreement should be among the main topics of a possible meeting. He also said the leaders should discuss security guarantees, the reconstruction of Ukraine and the status of the occupied territories. However, Zelensky ruled out accepting Putin’s demands that Ukraine hand over the Donbass or recognize Crimea as Russian territory, saying such concessions would violate the Ukrainian constitution. The fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without kyiv. Zelensky also addressed the possibility of attending the G20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December, saying Ukraine had not yet received an official invitation from Washington. Other topics of interest Sybiha criticizes CAS ruling allowing Russian hockey teams to return to world championships Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned a CAS ruling allowing Russian hockey teams to return to world championships, calling for a visa ban. He said there were signs that US President Donald Trump could invite Ukraine, potentially along with an initiative aimed at ending the war. “The discussion touched on the possibility that President Trump will invite us to the G20 summit and perhaps present an initiative aimed at ending the war. Naturally, if Trump extends an official invitation, we will welcome it,” Zelensky said. The United States invited Putin to the summit in September, raising the possibility of a meeting between the Russian leader and Trump. The Kremlin had previously rejected Zelensky’s proposal to meet with Putin on the sidelines of the meeting. On Saturday, October 31, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington could invite Zelensky if his participation could help produce positive results. Trump also did not rule out the possibility on November 1. Zelensky stressed that any negotiations to end the war must include Ukraine, rejecting the idea that other countries could decide their future without kyiv’s participation. “It is impossible. The fate of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. That would be unfair and would lead nowhere. It is illogical to negotiate the fate of a country without the country itself being present,” he said. He added that similar attempts by other leaders in the past had not yielded results. Zelensky also noted Russia’s failure to achieve its initial military goals, despite claiming it could conquer Ukraine within days. “Russia, for example, considered itself a great power and claimed it would conquer Ukraine in three days. We are now entering the fifth year of the war. For five years, Russia has been unable to conquer Ukraine,” he said. He added that no third country had the right to negotiate issues of Ukrainian sovereignty without the direct participation of Ukraine.
