Reuters<\/a>, the Russian president said Moscow was prepared to make compromises but did not specify what those compromises might involve.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Putin also signalled that Russia continues to insist on the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, one of the central disputes in previous negotiations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In his letter, Zelensky challenged Russia’s military objectives and accused Putin of repeatedly postponing deadlines for capturing Ukrainian territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“You will not capture it this year either,” he wrote in reference to the Donetsk region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian leader also used the letter to argue that the war is imposing increasing costs on Russia. He pointed to rising prices, fuel shortages and public frustration inside the country, while claiming Russian forces continue to suffer heavy battlefield losses.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Citing Ukrainian intelligence assessments, Zelensky said more than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed or seriously wounded during May. Those figures could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The letter contained references to recent Ukrainian drone strikes, including an attack targeting the outskirts of St Petersburg earlier this week. Zelensky described the operation as evidence of Ukraine’s growing military reach and warned that Kyiv’s capabilities extended beyond what had already been demonstrated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He also accused Moscow of relying increasingly on support from North Korea and China.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
International peace efforts have produced little progress. Previous rounds of talks held in locations including Istanbul, Geneva and Abu Dhabi failed to produce a lasting ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Kremlin confirmed it had received Zelensky’s letter and said Putin would be briefed on its contents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking in St Petersburg, Putin questioned Zelensky’s political legitimacy and indicated that major differences between the two sides remain unresolved.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Whether Mr Zelensky is a legitimate representative of Ukraine, this is a question for lawyers,” Putin said during a discussion with foreign journalists.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite those remarks, he said Russia remained willing to seek an agreement with Ukraine if compromises could be reached.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him face to face and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[51542,51543,184,158,113,12146,51541,4505,155,21243,1887,10314],"class_list":["post-100370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-ceasefire-proposal","tag-direct-talks","tag-donald-trump","tag-finland","tag-helsinki","tag-open-letter","tag-peace-talks","tag-switzerland","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine-russia-war","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116695703673021992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}