Zelensky ready for trilateral meeting with Trump, Putin

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 27 that he is ready for a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Suspilne reported.

Putin previously said he was ready to meet with Zelensky. When the latter invited him to meet in Istanbul, the Russian president did not show up. Instead, Russian and Ukrainian delegations held lower-level peace talks on May 16.

"We are ready to meet at the level of leaders. The American side knows this, and the Russian side knows this. We are ready for the 'Trump, Putin, and me' format, and we are ready for the Trump-Putin, Trump-Zelensky format, and then the three of us," Zelensky said.

"If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone wants it to be a trilateral meeting, I don't care. I am ready for any format," Zelensky added.

Zelensky said that several venues are being considered for future talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S., particularly Istanbul, Switzerland, and the Vatican.

"The Turkish side knows that we are discussing several sites. And that we have done preparatory work on the Vatican and Switzerland," the president said, adding that the idea of holding talks in the Vatican "was supported by everyone except Russia, as can be seen in the media."

According to Zelensky, Turkey is "the most realistic option" for the next round of negotiations. Meanwhile, Russia is also offering Belarus as a venue for the next meeting, which is unacceptable for Kyiv, Zelensky added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Moscow would welcome a second round of peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul. The Russian top diplomat dismissed the Vatican as a possible venue, saying the Catholic seat would not be an appropriate platform for negotiations between two Orthodox Christian nations.

Lavrov said on May 28 that the next round of talks will be announced "soon," and that Russia will push for the abolition of laws it calls "discriminatory" toward Russian-language speakers, as well as for Ukraine's non-aligned status.

Moscow has repeatedly presented a ban on Ukraine's entry to NATO as its key demand, which Kyiv rejected.

Turkey previously hosted peace negotiations in March 2022. Since then, Ankara has maintained active contact with both Kyiv and Moscow and facilitated multiple prisoner exchanges, as well as the now-defunct Black Sea Grain Initiative.