Zelensky says he is ready to meet Putin in Turkey

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey, saying he hoped Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could help arrange the talks.

Speaking to CNN Türk, Zelensky said direct, presidential-level negotiations were needed because contacts between the two countries' delegations and technical working groups had failed to end the war. He said Erdoğan's relationship with Putin was why Kyiv backed holding the meeting on Turkish soil, and that dealing with Putin as the decision-maker was the point of wanting a direct meeting.

He said a ceasefire along the front line, together with a mechanism to monitor compliance, should be among the main topics. He said the two leaders should also discuss security guarantees, Ukraine's reconstruction and the status of occupied territories. Zelensky ruled out handing over the Donbas or recognising Crimea as Russian territory, saying such concessions would breach Ukraine's constitution.

Zelensky also raised the possibility of attending the G20 leaders' summit in Miami in December, saying Ukraine had not yet received a formal invitation from Washington but that there were signs US President Donald Trump might extend one as part of a push to end the war. Washington invited Putin to the September summit, and Trump did not rule out inviting Zelensky when asked on 1 November.

Zelensky said any talks on ending the war must include Ukraine itself. "You cannot decide Ukraine's fate without Ukraine," he said, adding that past attempts by other countries to settle the war without Kyiv's involvement had gone nowhere.

He also pointed to what he described as Russia's failure to meet its original war aims, noting Moscow had once predicted it could take Ukraine within days but had not done so after nearly five years of fighting.