Vladimir Putin Agrees To Meet President Zelensky To Conduct Peace Talks In Person

Vladimir Putin has “finally agreed” he will need to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in person to resolve the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The two leaders have let their diplomatic teams conduct peace talks on the neutral ground since shortly after the start of the conflict on February 24.

BBC correspondent Lysa Doucet said the Russian president is now believed to have caved in to his top diplomats and accepted he will have to attend negotiations himself “at some point.”

Speaking to BBC’s Broadcasting House, Ms Doucet said: “The diplomats are talking, the negotiators are talking.

“And we understand they are making progress. And we understand President Putin has finally agreed that he will meet, at some point, President Zelensky who has been asking for a meeting since January.

“He hasn’t said it in public, he says quite the opposite in public.

“But we understand there’s many, many eager mediators – everyone wants the prize of saying they brought this war to an end.” She added: “The Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet is very busy, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is very busy.

“They’ve said privately their understanding is that President Putin will meet President Zelensky when the time is right.

But the time is not right now.” The potential diplomatic development comes as Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration warned the situation in her country is becoming “more and more severe”.

Olha Stefanishyna said Ukrainian forces resisting the Russians were facing “severe attacks” over the past 15 days. She told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News: “Russia has committed nearly all possible war crimes which humanity has seen over the Second World War.

“The number of civilian victims is far more than those from the armed forces of Ukraine.

It is absolutely essential that no one is getting used to the war.

“We’ve said we will resist and we will go stronger regardless of any attempt by the Russian Federation, which has failed so far in its majority.”

Turkey’s Foreign Minister said Russia and Ukraine were nearing agreement on “critical” issues and he was hopeful for a ceasefire if the two sides did not backtrack from progress achieved so far.