US special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to join talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, as the Ukrainian president said he wanted to intensify peace negotiations.
Bringing the end of the war closer with all our might is Ukraine's top priority, Zelensky said, adding that efforts would also focus on resuming prisoner exchanges.
Turkey has maintained ties with both Kyiv and Moscow and has previously hosted talks between the two factions.
However, no Russian representative is set to join the meeting in Ankara, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.
Peskov added that while there were no concrete plans for Vladimir Putin to speak to either the Turkish side or Witkoff, the Russian president was of course open to a conversation.
Ankara will be the fourth capital Zelensky visits in only a few days. In Athens, he secured a gas deal; in Paris, he signed a deal with France to acquire up to 100 fighter jets; and in Madrid, he held talks on cooperation with Spanish arms manufacturers.
These visits are part of Zelensky's mission to solidify European support for Ukraine while Russian attacks intensify and Moscow's military closes in on the key eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Domestically, Zelensky is facing his most serious crisis in years, as several members of his close circle are under investigation for involvement in a large-scale criminal scheme, leading to the resignation of two ministers.
The scandal risks escalating, and some EU leaders have warned that Zelensky must do more to combat corruption before they decide on unblocking a €140bn (£121bn) loan for Kyiv based on frozen Russian state assets.
As the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion in February approaches, both sides remain fundamentally opposed regarding how to resolve the conflict.
In November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated that Russia's conditions for a peace deal have not changed since Putin outlined them in 2024, which include demands for Kyiv to renounce NATO ambitions and full withdrawal from contested regions.
Zelensky argues that ceding Donetsk and Luhansk would render the rest of Ukraine vulnerable to future attacks.
After a long meeting with Putin in April, Witkoff seemed to indicate that a peace deal would depend on the status of contested Ukrainian regions, leading to tension with Zelensky, who accused him of promoting Russian narratives.
Since their last meeting in early September, high-level discussions to bring about a ceasefire have stalled, despite numerous contacts between US and Russian officials under the radar.
While a summit between Trump and Putin was expected in Budapest, it was scrapped when the US realized Moscow was unwilling to budge on unacceptable demands to Kyiv.
Contact continued between US and Russian officials, with reports of Putin's special envoy meeting with Witkoff in Washington shortly after Trump imposed sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies.
