KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will travel to Turkey this week in an attempt to jump-start negotiations on ending Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began nearly four years ago.
The Kremlin said that Russia would not be sending anyone to Turkey, and it was not immediately clear if there would be U.S. participation in the talks. Zelenskyy told a news conference in Spain that he would meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss “a just peace for Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy’s statement came as Ukraine’s military said it had again used American-supplied ATACMS missiles to attack targets inside Russia, although it did not provide further details. Kyiv says that the use of longer-range missiles is vital in preventing strikes against Ukrainian cities, while the Kremlin has warned that the use of American weapons to strike targets inside its territory risks greater pressure on Russian-U.S. relations.
A senior Turkish official told The Associated Press that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff would join Zelenskyy in Turkey, but backtracked later in the day and said Witkoff wouldn’t be coming.
Zelenskyy did not confirm whether U.S. representatives would also take part. “We see some positions and signals from the United States,” he said. “Well, let’s see tomorrow.”
Three U.S. officials said they were not aware of any imminent overseas travel by Witkoff, though they acknowledged he is not a government employee and sometimes travels without U.S. government support.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said Witkoff would be in Washington for much of this week to attend events related to a state visit by the Saudi crown prince on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A top Turkish spokesman said the talks in Turkey will be held in Ankara and will center on how to establish a ceasefire and a lasting settlement. They also will touch on Ukraine-Turkey relations, Burhanettin Duran, Turkey’s head of presidential communications, said on the social platform X.
Turkey provided a setting for low-level talks between Ukraine and Russia earlier this year, though the only significant progress in Istanbul was on exchanging prisoners of war. U.S.-led international peace efforts have brought no breakthrough, either.
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge from his demands for putting an end to the war.
Heavy new American sanctions on Russia’s all-important oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect on Friday. The sanctions against oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil seek to starve Putin’s war machine of cash and halt its grinding war of attrition, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “there will be no Russian representative in Turkey” on Wednesday, although he insisted that Moscow is ready to negotiate.
“For now, these contacts are taking place without Russian participation. We will await information on what would actually be discussed in Istanbul,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
Washington’s sanctions also carry the threat of secondary penalties against anyone violating them, raising the stakes for Putin. China and India are major importers of Russian oil.
In the meantime, Zelenskyy has been traveling to European capitals to gather support for Ukraine’s war effort, meeting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday. Madrid said it would provide Ukraine with aid worth $946 million for defense and reconstruction.
The Ukrainian leader was in Paris on Monday where he signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 Rafale warplanes from France, along with drones and ground-to-air systems.
On the battlefield, Ukraine launched a surprise aerial attack on energy infrastructure in occupied parts of its eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian-appointed head of the partially occupied region, Denis Pushilin, on Tuesday morning reported an “unprecedented” Ukrainian attack that damaged two thermal power stations and left many areas without power. A day earlier, Pushilin also reported Ukrainian drones attacking energy infrastructure in the region, denying power to around 500,000 consumers. The occupied part of the region has also endured water shortages.
The commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Maj. Robert Brovdi, published footage that he said showed strikes Tuesday on two thermal power plants located in the Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk.
Ukrainian forces, despite being heavily outnumbered, are fighting hard to prevent Russia’s army from capturing any more of Donetsk.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl was killed and 10 other people were wounded in a Russian missile strike on the town of Berestyn, located about 110 kilometers from the Russian border, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russian drones sparked multiple fires in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro last night, injuring two people, said Vladyslav Haivanenko, the head of the regional military administration. The drones damaged six residential buildings, as well as the local offices of Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, though the company said the building was empty at the time.
At home, Zelenskyy remains under political pressure over a $100 million embezzlement and kickback scandal involving top officials and Ukraine’s state nuclear power company. The scandal broke last week and brought the resignations of two members of Zelenskyy’s Cabinet.
Petro Poroshenko, a former Ukrainian president and the leader of the European Solidarity opposition party, demanded the dismissal of the entire Ukrainian government on Tuesday.
A dozen lawmakers from his party stood alongside him in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, holding up placards protesting corruption. Poroshenko and his supporters blocked any other speakers from going up, halting the parliamentary session.
Zelenskyy has pledged to weed out entrenched corruption, but has been dogged by graft scandals that have caused public outrage.
Zelenskyy said that he would meet with senior officials in his government on Thursday, as well as with the leadership of Ukraine’s Parliament and his political party, called Servant of the People.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Suman Naishadham in Madrid and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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Ukraine, Zelenskyy, Turkey, Russia, negotiations
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