Ukraine’s foreign minister said Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to meet Vladimir Putin face to face and discuss territory, which Sybiha said could bring new momentum to negotiations. The same day, a separate report said the Kremlin would prefer a phone call, underlining how far apart the two sides remain on the basic format of any talks.

Kyiv keeps pushing for direct talks

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, made the case after a two-day visit to Finland, where he spoke to the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. He said probably only a direct Zelensky-Putin encounter could bring fresh momentum to negotiations, and Zelensky is prepared to address the hardest issues, including territory.

Sybiha also said a direct meeting could open the door to confidence-building steps such as prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children Kyiv says Russia took from Ukraine. He said the venue was not the key issue for Kyiv, as long as it was not Moscow or Belarus. He also dismissed Russia’s invitation to Moscow as unserious.

That argument fits a wider effort by Kyiv to keep diplomatic channels open as Russian attacks continue. Sybiha said Ukraine turned to Finland and Norway partly because of the intensified strikes, and said Russia had launched 100 ballistic missiles at Ukraine over the previous two weeks.

Nordic leaders relayed Kyiv’s message to Putin

Sybiha said Kyiv coordinated a 90-minute phone call between Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. According to him, the Nordic leaders passed on two messages: Ukraine wants a ceasefire, and Ukraine wants a direct Zelensky-Putin meeting.

He described that call as a step forward and said he hoped the channel to Putin would stay open. Sybiha also said Stubb’s close ties with US President Donald Trump and Zelensky had already given the Finnish president an important role in the peace effort, even though he was speaking for Finland and not for Europe as a whole.

Different accounts of what Putin wants

A separate report by the Kyiv Independent, citing unnamed sources, said Putin wants to speak with Zelensky only by phone and refuses to meet him in person. One unnamed senior Ukrainian official told the outlet that a phone call would do little, while another said Kyiv wants a trilateral format with the United States and some European involvement.

The Kremlin has not publicly settled the question of an in-person meeting. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin is willing to speak with Zelensky by phone, but did not say in this report that Moscow had accepted a face-to-face summit.

Sybiha said talks between Ukraine, the United States and Russia are expected to continue in Abu Dhabi in November, and that those discussions will show whether Moscow is serious about ending the war through diplomacy. He said Kyiv currently sees no sign of that. He also argued that Europe should play a stronger role in the negotiations, while Washington must remain involved because Ukraine cannot end the war or secure lasting guarantees without it.

Russia has repeatedly insisted that any direct meeting should take place in Moscow. Zelensky has rejected that idea and has previously proposed neutral venues instead. For now, the gap is not only about peace terms, but about whether the leaders would meet at all.

Related background: Moscow remains the sticking point after Putin's invitation to Moscow was again dismissed by Kyiv. The expected trilateral Ukraine-US-Russia talks may become the next test of whether either side is prepared to move beyond public positions.