On Sunday Ukrainian Dictator Vladimir Zelensky confirmed he will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday to hold direct peace talks after the Kremlin invited Zelensky to the negotiating table.
“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” the Dictator said in a social media post Sunday.
We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 11, 2025
On Thursday the Dictator announced a Ukrainian ceasefire following the signing of the White House’s mineral deal into Ukrainian law and President Donald Trump ordering direct peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. Moscow had already signaled they were ready for these direct negotiations on April 29 and April 30.
Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire starting right now, from this very moment — a 30-day silence. But it must be real. No missile or drone strikes, no hundreds of assaults on the front. The Russians must respond appropriately – by supporting the ceasefire. They must prove their… pic.twitter.com/zRX5o7qzff
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 8, 2025
On Sunday Putin proposed the peace talks in Turkey, which Zelensky has now agreed to.
“We are proposing that Kiev resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said. “We offer the Kiev authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul … The decision is now up to the Ukrainian authorities and their curators, who are guided, it seems, by their personal political ambitions, and not by the interests of their peoples.”
On Monday, following Zelensky’s acceptance to the invitation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is committed to “finding a genuine diplomatic resolution to the Ukrainian crisis, addressing the root causes of the conflict, and achieving a lasting peace.”
Notably, Moscow and Kiev were already in peace talks in Istanbul back in 2022, until Ukraine abandoned the negotiations when their Dictator chose war.
Direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev have recently been ordered by Washington.
“It’s going to be up to them [Russia and Ukraine] to come to an agreement and stop this brutal, brutal conflict,” Vance told Fox News on May 1. “Look, I am optimistic, but it is ultimately, it’s hard to say confident, because the Russians and Ukrainians, they’re the ones who have to take the finals step. We got them talking, we got them offering peace proposals, we got the minerals deal done, I think we’re in a place where they got to say ‘we’re done with the fighting, we’re done with losing thousands and thousands of young people, we’re done with this.’ But only Russia and Ukraine can make that decision, that’s not something even President Trump could do for them.”
President Trump’s mineral deal has set the wheels of peace in motion.
“So, we’ve got this first step,” Vance said Wednesday. “We’ve got the peace proposal out there and issued, and we’re going to work very hard over the next 100 days to try to bring these guys together.”