Ukraine is ready for a meeting of Ukrainian and Russian leaders Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin in Turkey with the participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga has said.
During the ADF-Talks public discussion at the 5th Antalya Diplomatic Forum, the minister added that the Ukrainian side had conveyed an appropriate signal to Turkish partners. He also noted the important role of Turkey in peace efforts, the Foreign Ministry’s press service reported.
Sibiga said Ukraine was ready for a ceasefire. He noted that the only way to accelerate peace efforts is to increase pressure on Moscow, and added: Putin must realise that he will never achieve his goals on the battlefield.
“We must impose a ban on entry to Europe and the transatlantic space for Russian combatants who took part in the aggression against Ukraine,” the minister said.
US Vice President J.D. Vance, while in Hungary on 8 April, said there was “significant progress” in talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the war and the positions of the sides had, he said, converged.
“At first we couldn’t convince Russia and Ukraine to at least articulate what they wanted to end the conflict. Now we have achieved that. We have got documents from the Ukrainians and Russians. We actually got them to articulate their positions, and over time their positions have become closer and closer,” Vance said.
According to the US vice president, at this point it is “a matter of bargaining for a few square kilometres of territory in one direction or the other”. “Is it worth the loss of hundreds of thousands more Russian and Ukrainian young men? Is it worth the additional months or even years of higher energy prices and economic devastation?” – he noted.
President Zelensky, reacting to these words, pointed out that the occupation of Donbass is for Russia “an opportunity to prepare a springboard for the next offensive actions.”
Due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East, the trilateral talks between Ukraine, the USA and Russia, which lasted throughout January and February, were postponed indefinitely. At the same time, the Ukrainian president said that he did not believe that the talks had reached an impasse.
On 1 April, Volodymyr Zelensky reported a “good conversation” with US President Donald Trump’s representatives Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were also joined by Senator Lindsey Graham and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. According to Zelenskyy, during the conversation, it was agreed that the teams of Ukraine and the USA will remain in constant contact to “strengthen the document on security guarantees between Ukraine and the USA”.