“With Ukraine Stronger on the Battlefield, Zelensky Offers to Meet Putin”, The Wall Street Journal
Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that a meeting take place in a country other than Ukraine or Russia.LESZEK SZYMANSKI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Ukrainian president, writing first letter to Putin since war began, aims to unfreeze peace talks
By Anastasiia Malenko, June 5, 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to revive dormant peace talks by writing an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin just as Ukraine’s troops have shifted the momentum on the battlefield.
In the letter, published late Thursday, Zelensky offered a face-to-face meeting and a ceasefire during negotiations on a broader peace deal. It was the first such missive from Zelensky to Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and took note of the slender battlefield advantage that Ukraine now holds, saying Russia has been losing troops at a rate of around 30,000 a month. The U.S.-mediated peace process has stalled this spring as American attention turned to the war in the Middle East.
“We see that the United States is fully focused on the issue of Iran, and it would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the center of its attention,” Zelensky wrote. “Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us—and you. I am proposing a meeting.”
The offer in the letter is a public way for Zelensky to present himself as ready for peace, something President Trump has questioned without saying why.
It came one day after Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the inaugural day of a major economic forum set to be attended in the city by Putin, which Zelensky referred to in the second paragraph of the letter as a demonstration of Ukraine’s improving long-range strike campaign.
A satellite image shows the aftermath of this week’s drone attack on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg, Russia. VANTOR/REUTERS
This spring, Ukraine has strengthened its hand in negotiations through a sustained long-range campaign against Russian oil refineries, strikes on battlefield logistics and assaults on Russian troops with strike drones. In the past few weeks, Moscow launched deadly large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other cities, as Ukrainian officials complained about significant shortages of antiballistic air defenses.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it has targeted Ukraine’s military industry and airfields, as well as energy and transport infrastructure used by the military.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Putin received reports about the letter, adding that there were no official communication channels between Kyiv and Moscow, as cited by Russia’s state news agency TASS. In comments late Thursday, Peskov reiterated suggestions that a presidential meeting take place in Moscow—an offer Kyiv has repeatedly declined.
After 26 years of Putin’s rule, Zelensky said in the letter, “there is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in your capital—just as there is nothing for a Russian leader to do in Kyiv.” He offered instead to meet in another country.
Zelensky has repeatedly called for a president-level meeting with Putin to discuss the issues that could help to end the war. The Kremlin maintained that such a meeting could take place in Moscow, or in the final stages of the agreement to end the war.
For now, key sticking points between the two sides remain as Moscow is pushing for Ukraine to pull back its forces from well-fortified areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Russia hasn’t been able to capture by military means. Ukrainian officials hold that any negotiations must begin at the existing front line.
Residents surveyed damage to a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, following a Russian attack this week. SERHII KOROVAYNY FOR WSJ
The remains of a vehicle destroyed in the Ukrainian capital, which has come under heavy fire in recent weeks. SERHII KOROVAYNY FOR WSJ
The U.S.-mediated process has done little to bring the sides closer together on these issues, but Kyiv has stayed in touch with American representatives, including to discuss possible security guarantees to deter future Russian assaults.
“We have heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe,” Zelensky wrote, referring to Putin’s August summit with Trump. “But you can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage.”
He added that continued U.S. participation in the process is crucial for a new security architecture in the region. “Other agreed participants” could also join after the bilateral track is established between Kyiv and Moscow, he wrote.
Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, on Friday thanked the U.S. as well as the United Arab Emirates for their help with a prisoner exchange earlier in the day in which he said 185 Ukrainian servicemen and one civilian returned from Russian captivity.
In his letter, Zelensky declared that if Russia continued the war, Ukraine would keep fighting for its existence. He also argued that Putin now occupies a precarious position within his own country, which could stem from his resistance to ending the war.
“It is a fact of Russian history that you know well,” Zelensky wrote. “When Russia grows tired, change comes.”
Anastasiia Malenko is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal covering the war in Ukraine, focusing on how it has reshaped Ukrainian society. She is based in Kyiv. She previously covered the war as a breaking news correspondent for Reuters and a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, the leading English-language newspaper in Ukraine.
Anastasiia graduated from Stanford University with degrees in political science and economics.