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.
But no Russian representative is set to join the meeting in Ankara, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He added that while there were no concrete plans for Vladimir Putin to speak to either the Turkish side or to 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 an agreement to obtain up to 100 fighter jets and in Madrid he held talks on cooperation with Spanish arms manufacturers.
The visits are part of Zelensky's mission to try to shore up European support for Ukraine while Russian attacks on the country intensify and Moscow's troops close in on the key eastern city of Pokrovsk.
Domestically, Zelensky is facing the most serious crisis in years. Several members of his closest circle are under investigation for co-organizing a large-scale criminal scheme, and two ministers have resigned.
The scandal threatens to widen still and some EU leaders have warned Zelensky needs to do more to tackle corruption.
As the fourth anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 approaches, Moscow and Kyiv remain fundamentally opposed in their views of how to end the war.
Earlier in November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia's conditions for a peace deal had not changed since Putin laid them out in 2024.
At that time, the Russian president demanded that Kyiv renounce any ambition to join NATO, as well as a full Ukrainian withdrawal from several regions.
Zelensky has argued that withdrawing from these regions would leave the rest of the country vulnerable to future attacks.
This is a crucial time for Ukraine, as it navigates the challenges of conflict and corruption while seeking peace.
