In a letter to Russia’s Putin, Ukraine’s Zelensky proposed to end the war saying “Enough of war”.
In a striking public letter addressed directly to Vladimir Putin, President Zelensky called for an immediate end to the war and proposed a face-to-face meeting at a neutral venue — naming Switzerland, Türkiye, and Arab states as potential hosts. He made clear that after 26 years, there is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in Moscow, just as there is nothing for a Russian leader to do in Kyiv.
Zelensky pushed back on the idea that Ukraine’s fate could be decided without Ukraine. Referencing the Alaska talks between U.S. and Russian officials, he was blunt: Ukrainian and European issues are not resolved in Anchorage. He called for Europe and the United States to be formal participants in any peace framework, arguing that a durable new security architecture for the region requires genuine guarantors — not just bilateral agreements prone to collapse, as the Minsk agreements proved.
On the ground, he proposed that the current front line serve as the starting point for diplomacy — not a concession, but a practical baseline. Ukraine offered a full ceasefire for the duration of negotiations and an all-for-all prisoner exchange as an immediate confidence-building measure, noting the U.S. has the capability to monitor any halt in hostilities.
The tone of the letter was firm but not without warning. Zelensky reminded Putin that Ukraine will continue fighting if he does not personally choose to end the war — but also noted that Russia itself faces exhaustion, invoking a pattern from Russian history: when Russia grows tired, change comes. “You can stop your war,” he wrote.
The letter closed with a tribute — “Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by this war” — and the Ukrainian salute: Glory to Ukraine
