Full text of Zelensky's open letter to Putin

President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 4, one day after Ukrainian forces launced a mass drone attack on St. Petersburg.

The letter lays out Putin's increasingly apparent vulnerabilities, Ukraine's growing strength, and the case for an immediate reopening of peace negotiations.

Zelensky offers to meet Putin face to face in a neutral country, and challenges Putin to set a concrete date for the meeting.

The full text is as follows:

Open Letter
To the President of the Russian Federation
From the President of Ukraine

When you led Russia more than 26 years ago, many in Ukraine had a positive attitude towards you. That was the case. That is already in the past.

Now the absolute majority of Ukrainians perceive positively the fact that our long-range drones visited the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, having overcome a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you well know, this distance is not the limit of our capabilities.

Twenty-six years of your power have completely changed the agenda in relations between Ukraine and Russia. From discussions of trade turnover and other civil issues, our peoples have moved on to the topic of exclusively hits and losses.

Almost half of your 26 years of power in Russia you have spent in the war against Ukraine.
Whatever you say about NATO, geopolitics and the Russian language, this war is your personal choice – a war without a real reason. This is how history will remember it.

This time could have gone very differently.

We often hear that war suits you. Of course, not when it comes to the safety of your residence in Valdai or the parade in Moscow. Your own life is valuable to you.

But now we all see that this finally ceases to suit the Russians — the fact that the war gives more and more negativity to Russia.

They do not like our drones and missiles.

They do not like the shortage of gasoline and the constant rise in prices.

They do not like the constant bans.

They do not like your intention to organize a second wave of mobilization to expand the war to another direction in Ukraine or to direct it against some other countries — Russia's neighbors.

They do not like the fact that there is no end in sight to your war.

Yes, you can still force the Russians to exist like this.

But your resources are significantly reduced.

You will not have enough money and political power to continue buying the loyalty of the Russians, as you have done for 26 years. We will do everything to ensure that the world takes care of this.

As you yourself say, "we need to crunch the numbers."

Yesterday I received a report on the losses of your army on the front in Ukraine in May. This is again over 30 thousand killed and seriously wounded Russians. We keep exactly this figure every month, and we have video confirmation of each of your losses — this is not unfounded.

We know that 63 percent of your losses on the front are killed, and only 37 percent are wounded. In the 21st century, armies cannot afford such a balance. In the future, the share of those killed will increase.

It is not that we in Ukraine are worried about the Russians. After everything that your war has brought to Ukraine.

But I care about the Ukrainians.

We are losing our people, and each of our losses hurts us. And even if the level of Ukrainian losses is one to five or one to six compared to Russian losses, it still matters a lot.

It also matters that you regularly, every few months, postpone the deadlines for capturing our regions, primarily the Donetsk region. You will not capture it this year either.

But we in Ukraine do not want a permanent war. We know very well that it is immeasurably better without war. We want to achieve this.

I am sure that the majority of Russians are ready to give a positive answer to this, and you know it.

Many did not believe that Ukraine would hold out for so long on defense.

You did not believe. And those who advised you did not believe it either. That was a mistake.
You did not expect full-scale resistance from Ukraine and did not predict that everything would go this far. But we are all here — in the fifth year of a full-scale clash.

Do not be afraid to get out of the war — this is the main thing that is needed from you now.

Ukraine retains its independence. And will retain it. Despite all other predictions.

We have united many in the world in defense of Ukraine and against you. We have found weapons and finances.

We receive support, you receive sanctions. And so it will continue until there is justice for Ukraine, which we want and which can be achieved.

We will not allow those who try to convince you that sanctions against Russia will be significantly weakened and that support for Ukraine will be significantly reduced without a significant change in your position on Ukraine to succeed. Orbán’s example demonstrates the shame that those who choose to help Russia in the war against us end up with.

Ukraine went through hard winters when you tried to destroy our energy. We survived, and even in the darkness, the resilience of the Ukrainians remained.

We brought the war to your territory, and you could not have done it without the help of North Korea. You are the first Russian ruler who was forced to turn to Pyongyang for help.

And today you are completely dependent on China — also for the first time in Russian history.

You counted on the Ukrainians not having enough strength to defend themselves, but now our guys are helping to build defense for our partners in the Middle East and the Gulf.

You were hoping for internal unrest in Ukraine, but it was your own military formations that rebelled against you. June 23 will be another anniversary, and silence will not erase this fact from history.

And now your own government officials, businessmen and propagandists are looking at you with obvious fatigue. The world sees it.

The world is not tired of Ukraine, which you have long counted on. But even those in the global world who help you circumvent sanctions and keep the economy afloat are tired of Russia.

You can't help but notice this. After 26 years, old age has begun to take its toll. The further along you go, the greater your fatigue will be.

We have seen intelligence documents that you are now considering war plans for 2027 and 2028. We also know that you hope that ballistics will do for you what everything else has not.

You want to drag Belarus even further into the war, and now we are forced to prepare for that as well. We see that you are playing some kind of game with Transnistria. Your propagandists are threatening all of Russia's neighbors in one way or another. Do you really want to go through all of this?

The choice is yours now.

Enough of the war.

Ukraine offers to end this war.

We must do it honestly, with dignity, and guarantee that there will be no new outbreak of war.

We see that the United States is paying all its attention to the issue of Iran, and it is wrong to simply wait for the turn of their attention to the war in Europe.

Ukraine proposes to end the war in the format between us and you.

I propose a meeting with you.

Everyone has heard your representatives, smiling, saying that I can come to Moscow. But after such 26 years, there is nothing for the Ukrainian leader in your capital, as well as the Russian leader in Kyiv, to do.

There are countries that traditionally receive leaders to resolve issues of war and peace. Switzerland, Turkey, the countries of the Arab world — many can and want to host this meeting.

It is the leaders who decide key issues — it has always been and will always be so.

I propose to set a clear date for the meeting.

We heard that you were promised in Alaska to resolve some things that concern Ukraine and Europe. But you see that Ukrainian and European issues are not resolved in Anchorage.

Other specific participants may join the bilateral track that has been started between us. Since the war is ongoing in Europe, and we in Ukraine need security guarantees, and you want security guarantees for yourself, it seems logical to involve those who can really act as guarantors.

We believe that Europe needs to participate — those who really have the ability to influence the situation.

We believe that the United States should be in the process, and this is what can determine the configuration of the new security architecture in our part of the world.

We have already had the experience of many agreements with Russia and the Minsk agreements that did not work. Therefore, we must first find our bilateral answers to the questions that exist, and not hide from the complex issues behind any formulations, technical groups, or wasting time in shuttle diplomacy.

With your war, you have forever separated Ukraine and Russia.

The front line now is the line from which diplomacy should begin.

Ukraine is ready to cease fire completely — for the time when negotiations will continue. And this is standard practice, which is confirmed now and the circumstances around Iran. Trying to establish real silence is the best way to start talking to each other. We believe that this will be not just an attempt, but a real ceasefire, if you want it.

You know that the United States can provide monitoring of the ceasefire along the stop line.
Ukraine is ready for an exchange of prisoners of war on the principle of "all for all," and this could be a good prologue to the end of the war.

We need to take serious steps to return civilians and children who were taken out during the war.

We need to determine what the future will be for all future generations of Ukrainians and Russians.

If you personally do not agree that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue to fight for its existence. We will have those who will support us.

But you will also have to fight much more for your existence — not Russia’s, but your own. And this is not a threat from me or Ukraine. These are facts of Russian history that you know well: when Russia gets tired, changes happen.

We can work on such fatigue.

You can stop your war.

Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by this war.

Glory to Ukraine!