Zelenskyy and US envoy to visit Turkiye

Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he will travel to Turkiye this week

in an attempt to jump-start negotiations on ending Russia’s invasion, which began nearly four years ago.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff will join Zelenskyy in Turkiye, a senior Turkish official told The Associated Press, but the Kremlin said that Russia won’t be sending anyone.

Turkiye provided a setting for low-level talks between Ukraine and Russia earlier this year, though the only significant progress in Istanbul was on exchanging prisoners of war. US-led international peace efforts have brought no breakthrough, either.

Zelenskyy said that he would be in Turkiye on Wednesday, a day after visiting Spain, where he hoped for pledges of new support on Tuesday.

“We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners,” Zelenskyy said on social media, without providing details.

“Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine’s top priority.”

US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge from his demands for an end to the invasion.

Heavy new American sanctions on Russia’s all-important oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take

effect on Friday.