Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent an open letter directly to Vladimir Putin on Thursday June 4, 2026, proposing a face to face meeting to end the war and offering a full ceasefire for the entire duration of any negotiations, in the most direct personal appeal one leader has made to the other since the conflict began.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky wrote in the letter, released by the Office of the President of Ukraine. “Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations.”
The tone was firm and unambiguous. Zelensky made clear that Ukraine sees the war as a fight for national survival and that no diplomatic process can succeed without Putin personally committing to it. “If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence.”
Zelensky proposed that direct talks be hosted in Switzerland, Turkey or countries of the Arab world, and insisted that European Union leaders must be present at any negotiations. Putin rejected EU participation outright, and reiterated his longstanding position that Zelensky is welcome to attend peace talks in Moscow at any time, on Russia’s terms.
The letter arrived amid a surge of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes near St. Petersburg, timed deliberately to coincide with the opening of Russia’s flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a move Kyiv did not deny was intentional.
Peace efforts have been further complicated by the Iran conflict, which has pulled American diplomatic bandwidth away from Ukraine at a critical moment. Russia’s conditions for ending the war remain unchanged: full Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, a ban on NATO membership for Ukraine, and a reduced Ukrainian military. Ukraine has rejected all territorial concessions.