Zelensky says he is ready to meet Putin in Türkiye, as Russian drone strike kills child in Vinnytsia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he was ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Türkiye, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a possible go-between. "Yes, we are ready. We are ready for this meeting in Türkiye," he told the Turkish broadcaster CNN Türk, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.

The offer came a day after Zelensky met Erdogan, and as Russia and Ukraine kept up long-range drone attacks on each other's territory. A Russian drone strike in the central Vinnytsia region on Sunday killed a 13-year-old girl and a woman, regional officials said, and a six-day local ceasefire around the occupied town of Oleshky was due to end on Sunday evening. The Kremlin had not responded directly to the offer of a meeting in Türkiye by Monday afternoon, but a senior aide to Putin said the Russian leader would take a phone call from Zelensky.

What Zelensky said

Zelensky said Erdogan "has his own communication with Putin" and that Kyiv therefore supported a meeting in Türkiye, Ukrinform reported. He described Türkiye as a practical and realistic mediator. Türkiye Today reported that Kyiv would welcome a three-way summit hosted by Ankara. Zelensky met Erdogan on Saturday, 31 October; Ukrinform and Türkiye Today said the talks were in Istanbul, while the Ukrainian agency UNN said Ankara.

Ukraine's main demand remains "a full and unconditional ceasefire" with an effective monitoring mechanism, followed by security guarantees and reconstruction, UNN reported. Zelensky repeated that Ukraine would not recognise occupied territory, including Crimea, as Russian.

He also said Ukraine had not yet received a formal invitation to the G20 leaders' summit that the US hosts in December. "Legally, we haven't received an invitation; but there have been signals from different negotiators," he said, according to Ukrinform, adding that Kyiv would support it if US President Donald Trump invited Ukraine. UNN reported that a Zelensky-Putin meeting on the sidelines of that summit had been discussed.

What Moscow said

Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign-policy aide, told the Russian state TV journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday that Putin would answer if Zelensky called. "I think he would answer, of course," he said, according to the Kyiv Post. "Putin has never refused conversations." Ushakov said initial negotiations should involve only Russia, Ukraine and the US, ABC News reported, citing TASS. His remarks, published by Izvestia on Sunday afternoon Moscow time, were about a phone call, not the proposed meeting in Türkiye.

Ushakov also said Moscow would resume the exploratory three-way talks with Ukraine and the US after Russia's National Unity Day on 4 November, and that a meeting of Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was being prepared on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November, the Kyiv Post reported. Neither Washington nor Beijing has confirmed such a meeting. Zelensky has said Türkiye is being considered as a venue for the three-way talks alongside Abu Dhabi and Switzerland.

Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Kyiv wanted a leaders' meeting. "Likely, only a meeting between Zelensky and Putin can impart new meaning to the negotiations," he said, according to the Kyiv Post, adding that Zelensky was prepared to discuss "the most complex and delicate issues", including territory.

Sunday's attacks

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 326 attack drones at Ukraine between 6.30 am and 7 pm on Sunday (10 am to 10.30 pm IST), along with six jet-powered loitering munitions, and that 274 of the drones were shot down or jammed, according to Ukrinform. That came after an overnight attack of 433 drones that cut power to hundreds of thousands of households. The figures could not be independently verified.

In the Koziatyn community of the Vinnytsia region, a drone struck between a student dormitory and an academic building, the head of the regional military administration, Nataliia Zabolotna, said on Telegram, according to Ukrinform. She said a 13-year-old girl was killed at the scene and a woman died later in hospital, and that six people were injured, four of them children. The Associated Press, citing Ukraine's State Emergency Service, reported three dead and four wounded; the figures may change.

Zelensky said Ukraine had hit the Kamensky plant in Russia's Rostov region, which he described as a defence enterprise involved in missile production, along with Russian air-defence systems, Reuters reported. Moscow did not comment on that claim. Russia's defence ministry said its forces downed 235 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight.

The Oleshky truce ends

The local ceasefire around Oleshky, a Russian-held town on the left bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region, began early on Tuesday and was expected to end on Sunday evening, the AP reported. It allowed civilians to leave through Russia and Belarus. The White House said US First Lady Melania Trump helped to broker it, and Trump wrote on social media: "Let Oleshky become the starting point for lasting peace." The AP described it as the most significant truce between Kyiv and Moscow since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Why it matters

Zelensky and Putin have not met since December 2019. Türkiye hosted direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul in 2022 and 2025 and helped negotiate the Black Sea grain deal, which gives Ankara a track record as a venue.

For India, one of the largest buyers of Russian crude oil, any move towards talks matters for energy prices, as do the continuing strikes on Russian refineries. New Delhi has consistently called for the war to be ended through dialogue and diplomacy.

What happens next

Whether the three-way talks with the US restart after 4 November, and where, is the next thing to watch, along with any formal Kremlin answer to the offer of a meeting in Türkiye. The US hosts the G20 leaders' summit in December, and Trump has not said whether Ukraine will be invited.