Zelenskyy calls for face-to-face negotiations in letter to Putin

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy , has called for face-to-face negotiations in a public letter addressed directly to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The letter, the first public letter Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, was a sweeping criticism of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power. Zelenskyy acknowledged shifting US priorities, saying it would be wrong to simply wait for the Trump administration to return its attention to ending the Ukraine war while it remained heavily focused on the Iran war. “I am proposing a meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote. He appeared to be trying to seize a pivotal moment in the war as Ukraine has begun to regain some battlefield leverage, largely through improved long-range strike capabilities that have complicated Russia’s advances. At the same time, Moscow has intensified its deadly aerial campaign across Ukraine, seeking to exploit Kyiv’s shortages and continued vulnerability to ballistic missile attacks . Putin said on Thursday that Russia would strengthen its air defences to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks, which have reached deep inside his country and cast a cloud over his showcase economic forum in his home town of St Petersburg. Vladimir Putin said Russia needed to improve and strengthen its air defence system, ‘and we will do that’. …