Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his intention to travel to Turkey to resume peace talks with Russia. According to him, Kyiv is currently in active dialogue with a number of partners, and concrete proposals that will lead to a ceasefire are ready. According to Zelenskyy, the main task is to bring the possibility of ending the conflict as close as possible and fully restore the prisoner exchange process.
Shortly after the president's statement, a Turkish source told Reuters that US Special Representative Steve Whitkoff would travel to Ankara on November 19 to participate in talks with Zelenskyy. At the same time, according to AFP, Zelenskyy will also meet with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that Moscow had not received any information from Kyiv about this trip, and Zelenskyy emphasized that there would be no Russian delegation in Turkey in the coming days.
It is known that since the beginning of the war, Turkey has been positioning itself as a mediator between the two sides. Since May 2025, Ukrainian and Russian delegations have met several times in Istanbul, where an agreement was reached mainly on the exchange of prisoners. However, there was no serious discussion about the ceasefire. The most recent exchange took place at the beginning of October, when both sides returned 185 individuals.
The Kyiv side emphasized that Moscow has repeatedly shown no real desire to end the war and has proposed unacceptable conditions for Ukraine - including the renunciation of additional territories.
Despite this, while traveling across Europe, Zelenskyy is seeking support from the West amid the escalating energy crisis and corruption scandals in the country. On November 18, he met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and the day before, he signed an agreement with France to supply Ukraine with up to 100 combat aircraft and a number of drones.
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislitsa stated on November 11 that the peace talks were halted due to the impossibility of moving side-by-side with Moscow. He stated that in the context of a dictatorship in Russia, negotiating groups can operate with limited mandates and defend only a defined position.
However, on November 16, it became known that indirect dialogue with Russia on the exchange of prisoners had resumed in Kyiv. According to Rustem Umerov, head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, work is currently underway to revive the "Istanbul Accords." Turkey and the UAE are acting as intermediaries in this process.
In the coming days, technical negotiations will be held, and all organizational issues will be clarified. For Kyiv, however, this process remains one of the most important steps towards achieving peace.
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