Putin talks could be in Türkiye: Zelensky

KIEV

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he could meet Russia's Vladimir Putin but only after his country had received security guarantees, and mentioned Switzerland, Austria or Türkiye as possible venues.

"We want to have an understanding of the security guarantees architecture within 7-10 days. And based on that understanding, we aim to hold a trilateral meeting" also with US President Donald Trump, Zelensky said.

"Switzerland, Austria — we agree... For us, Türkiye is a NATO country and part of Europe. And we are not opposed," he said of possible venues in comments to media outlets including AFP released on Thursday.

Zelensky on Thursday accused Russia of avoiding the "necessity" of holding a meeting between the two countries' leaders despite U.S.-led efforts to arrange such summit to try to end the war.

"Current signals from Russia are, to be honest, indecent. They're trying to avoid the necessity to meet. They don't want to end this war," Zelensky said in his evening address published on social media.

Hungary — Moscow's and Donald Trump's closest ally in the EU — said Thursday it was ready to host Ukraine peace talks.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest was ready to host any peace talks.

"We will provide the proper, fair and safe conditions for such peace talks," he told a pro-government show streamed on social media.

"I don't know of any European politician today, apart from Viktor Orban, who can speak equally with (US President) Donald Trump and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin," he added.

 Zelensky said that during his meeting with Donald Trump on Monday, he asked the U.S. leader to pressure Hungary into dropping its veto on Kyiv's bid to join the European Union.

Ukraine applied to join the EU days after Russia invaded in February 2022, but has been unable to advance accession talks due to vetoes imposed by Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"I asked President Trump that Budapest should not block our accession to the European Union," Zelensky said in comments released to journalists including AFP on Thursday.

"President Trump promised that his team would work on this," he added.

Zelensky also said that Russian forces are building up troops along the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Moscow claims as its own.

"Zaporizhzhia: the enemy is reinforcing," Zelensky said, adding that: "We can see that they continue transferring part of their troops from the Kursk direction to Zaporizhzhia."

 Zelensky said that he did not want China playing a role in guaranteeing Ukraine's security following Russia's invasion, citing Beijing's alleged support for Moscow.

"First, China did not help us stop this war from the start. Second, China assisted Russia by opening its drone market... We do not need guarantors who do not help Ukraine and did not help Ukraine at the time when we really needed it," Zelensky said.

Russia said Thursday that Ukraine was "not interested" in a long-term peace deal, accusing it of seeking security guarantees incompatible with Russia's demands.

"The Ukrainian regime and its representatives comment on the current situation in a very specific way, directly showing that they are not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference.

NATO military chiefs on Wednesday held a virtual summit on security guarantees for Ukraine, the latest in a flurry of global diplomacy aimed at brokering an end to the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict.

"On #Ukraine, we confirmed our support. Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace," the chair of the alliance's military committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, wrote on X after the meeting.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier warned that "seriously discussing security guarantees without the Russian Federation is a utopia, a road to nowhere".

Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.

But Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

On Tuesday, top U.S. officer Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with European military chiefs on the "best options for a potential Ukraine peace deal", a U.S. defense official told AFP.

In eastern Ukraine, far from the diplomatic deliberations, Russian forces claimed fresh advances on the ground and Ukrainian officials reported more deaths from Russian attacks.

  Diplomatic flurry 

U.S. President Donald Trump brought Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Russia's long-serving foreign minister downplayed the meeting in Washington, describing it as a "clumsy" attempt to change the U.S. president's position on Ukraine.

Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in U.S. support to Ukraine, earlier said European nations were "willing to put people on the ground" to secure any settlement.

He ruled out sending U.S. troops but suggested the country might provide air support.

Russia has long said it will never tolerate the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine.

While Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia has not confirmed this.

Lavrov also cast doubt on an imminent meeting between the sworn enemies, saying that any summit between Putin and Zelensky "must be prepared in the most meticulous way" so it does not lead to a "deterioration" of the situation surrounding the conflict.

- Fresh Russian strikes - 

Russian attacks on western Ukraine killed one person and wounded multiple others, officials in the country said Thursday.

"One person was killed and two were wounded as a result of the combined UAV and cruise missile strike in Lviv," said Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the regional military administration.

"Dozens of residential buildings were damaged," he added in a Telegram post.

Russian fire also wounded 12 people in the city of Mukachevo, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia, the city council said.

"Five patients are being treated in the hospital, and one more was transferred to the regional hospital," the council wrote on Facebook.

In Lutsk, Mayor Igor Polishchuk reported "an enemy attack that was conducted by UAVs and missiles".

"As of this moment there are no injuries or fatalities," he said.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense ministry said it destroyed "49 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles" across multiple regions.

The ministry did not detail any casualties or damage.

Russia's aerial attacks on the northeastern town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded at least 14 people, including three children, according to regional governor Oleg Grygorov.

Zelensky said these latest strikes showed "the need to put pressure on Moscow", including through sanctions.