Zelensky offers first meeting of war with Putin after Russia ignores ceasefire demand

By Christian Edwards, Mariya Knight, Svitlana Vlasova, Rosa Rahimi and Kit Maher, CNN

(CNN) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is prepared to meet Vladimir Putin this week, shortly after US President Donald Trump urged him to “immediately” accept the Russian leader’s offer to hold peace talks in Turkey.

After meeting in Kyiv on Saturday, Ukraine’s major European allies gave Russia an ultimatum: agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine by Monday or face “massive” new sanctions. Trump supported the initiative, Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

In a late-night address, Putin did not acknowledge the ultimatum. Ignoring the ceasefire offer, he instead proposed holding “direct talks” with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday – something not seen since the early weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Ukraine’s allies spent Sunday stressing that there could be no further talks before Putin agrees to an unconditional ceasefire. But Trump undermined the efforts to put pressure on Putin, saying that Ukraine should “immediately” agree to meet with Russian officials on Thursday.

“HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Within an hour, Zelensky said he was prepared to meet with Putin this week, in what would be the leaders’ first meeting since Russia launched its war.

“I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” Zelensky said Sunday on X.

Although Zelensky said a “full and lasting ceasefire” from Monday would provide “the necessary basis for diplomacy,” he did not specify that this would be a precondition for attending the talks.

Whereas Putin on Saturday faced a joint call from Europe and the US to accept a ceasefire by Monday’s deadline, his counteroffer of “direct” talks had by Sunday relieved much of the pressure on Moscow and shifted the focus to the potential talks this week. European leaders have not yet said whether they will press ahead with the threatened additional sanctions on Russia if a ceasefire is not in place by Monday.

Before Trump’s comment, Zelensky had responded with trepidation to Putin’s offer, calling it a “positive sign,” but stressing that Kyiv first expects Moscow to agree to the new ceasefire proposal. Ukraine’s European allies more forcefully dismissed Putin’s offer, saying there could be no new talks before a ceasefire.

Merz, Germany’s new chancellor, said talks “cannot begin until weapons fall silent.” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the world was still waiting on Russia’s “univocal decision on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.” French President Emmanuel Macron said Putin’s counter-offer was “not enough.”

Keith Kellogg, the Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine, whose influence has dwindled since January, echoed the Europeans’ claims, saying a ceasefire must come before talks, “not the other way round.”

But Trump abandoned his earlier demand that Russia agree to a 30-day ceasefire, instead calling on Ukraine to attend the peace talks without preconditions.

For months, Ukraine and its allies tried to convince the Trump administration that Putin acts in bad faith, and have said Russia’s agreeing to a ceasefire could function as a test of whether it is serious about achieving the peace the US president has long demanded.

But Putin’s offer for direct talks – made in a rare televised address at 1 a.m. local time Sunday – was a gamble to distract from the fact that Russia is likely to snub Monday’s ceasefire deadline, analysts said.

Putin’s offer put Zelensky under “huge pressure” to agree to hold talks in Turkey, Sergey Radchenko, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told CNN.

“Why? Because otherwise, he’ll have to deal with Trump, who’s going to say, ‘Why are you undermining my peace initiative here? Why can’t you just talk?’”

Turkey ‘ready’ to host talks

Already setting the stage for talks, Putin spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday. The Kremlin said Erdogan “fully supported” Putin’s proposal for peace talks and had offered Istanbul as a venue.

Although Ankara confirmed Turkey is ready to host the negotiations, a statement from the country’s presidency suggested that it agreed with Ukraine’s allies that a ceasefire must come before talks.

“Noting that a window of opportunity to achieve peace has opened, President Erdoğan said that a comprehensive ceasefire would create the necessary environment for peace talks,” the statement read. It did not say whether Turkey would decline to host the talks if Russia refused the ceasefire offer.

The White House said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Turkey from Wednesday to Friday, to attend an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers and discuss “ending the Russia-Ukraine war,” meaning he will be in the country on the day of Putin’s proposed peace talks.

Trump’s dropping of his demand for Russia to agree to a ceasefire marks a dramatic change in approach. Last week, Trump had called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, without providing a deadline. “If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions,” he warned. The European leaders in Kyiv added weight to the threat by naming Monday as a deadline.

Radchenko said that Putin’s late-night offer of peace talks was an attempt to shift the pressure on Russia back onto Ukraine.

“He knows that Trump wants direct talks,” Radchenko said. “Now, by saying, ‘Look, we’re offering talks and the Ukrainians are the ones who are not agreeing,’ he is putting the ball back in Kyiv’s court.”

As well as distracting from his snubbing the ceasefire proposal, the offer allowed Putin to pose “as the peacemaker, kindly inviting Ukraine to the table,” Radchenko said. “He’s seen as taking the initiative.”

In his address, Putin said Russia does not rule out that “during these talks there will be a possibility to arrange some kind of new truce, a new ceasefire,” but stressed that the talks will aim to eliminate the “root causes” of the conflict.

Around the same time as Putin’s late-night speech, a three-day pause in fighting ordered by Russia’s leader came to an end, with Ukraine reporting more than 100 drone attacks overnight. Both sides accused each other of continuing attacks during the truce, ordered by Putin to mark Russia’s World War II Victory Day.

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CNN’s Andrew Carey, Nick Paton Walsh, Lucas Lilieholm and Ivana Kottasova contributed to this report.