US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to join talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, as the Ukrainian president said he wanted to intensify peace negotiations.
Bringing the end of the war closer with all our might is Ukraine's top priority, Zelensky said, adding that efforts would also focus on resuming prisoner exchanges.
Turkey has maintained ties with both Kyiv and Moscow, and has previously hosted talks between the two factions. However, no Russian representative is set to join the meeting in Ankara, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.
Peskov added that while there were no concrete plans for Vladimir Putin to speak to either the Turkish side or to Witkoff, the Russian president was of course open to a conversation.
Ankara will be the fourth capital Zelensky visits in only a few days. In Athens he secured a gas deal, in Paris, he signed a deal with France to obtain up to 100 fighter jets, and in Madrid, he held talks on cooperation with Spanish arms manufacturers.
The visits are part of Zelensky's mission to try to shore up European support for Ukraine while Russian attacks on the country intensify and Moscow's troops close in on the key eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Domestically, Zelensky is facing the most serious crisis in years. Several members of his closest circle are under investigation for co-organizing a large-scale criminal scheme, and two ministers have resigned. The scandal threatens to widen further, with some EU leaders warning that Zelensky needs to do more to combat corruption, especially as they prepare to decide on unblocking a €140bn loan for Kyiv based on frozen Russian state assets.
As the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 approaches, Moscow and Kyiv remain fundamentally opposed in their views on how to end the war. Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia's conditions for a peace deal had not changed since Putin laid them out in 2024, which included demands for Ukraine to renounce ambitions of joining NATO and a full withdrawal from contested regions.
Zelensky has repeatedly argued that withdrawing from Donetsk and Luhansk would leave the rest of the country vulnerable to future attacks.
Efforts for peace between the two nations stalled over the summer despite high-level meetings. Dialogue between US and Russian officials continues under the radar, highlighted by Witkoff's previous discussions with a Russian envoy, suggesting complexities remain in reaching a consensus.
