Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in open letter addressed directly to the Russian President.
He called for ceasefire and even hinted a coup could be brewing in Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said he was proposing ‘direct engagement’ with Putin in a bid to end the war.
He also listed off the difficulties Putin is facing, saying he’d received a report outlining how ‘30,000 Russian soldiers [were] killed and seriously wounded’ in May alone.
‘It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country,’ he said. ‘But I do care about Ukrainians.’
Zelensky brushed off suggestions that the pair could meet in Moscow.
‘There is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in your capital — just as there is nothing for a Russian leader to do in Kyiv.’
He instead suggested Swizterland, Turkey or somewhere in the Arab World as the location for their showdown.
