Zelenskyy will visit Turkey in a new bid to end the Russia-Ukraine war
[November 18, 2025]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said
Tuesday that he will travel to Turkey this week in an attempt to
jump-start negotiations on ending Russia’s invasion, which began nearly
four years ago.
Turkey 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. U.S.-led international peace efforts
have brought no breakthrough, either.
Zelenskyy said that he would be in Turkey 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.”
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “there will be no
Russian representative in Turkey" on Wednesday, although he insisted
that Moscow is ready to negotiate.
“For now, these contacts are taking place without Russian participation.
We will await information on what would actually be discussed in
Istanbul,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge from his demands for putting
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. The sanctions against oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil seek
to starve Putin’s war machine of cash and halt its grinding war of
attrition, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Ukraine.
The measures also carry the threat of secondary penalties against anyone
violating them. China and India are major importers of Russian oil.
Zelenskyy said that he would meet with senior officials in his
government on Thursday, as well as with the leadership of Ukraine’s
Parliament and his political party, called Servant of the People.
The Ukrainian leader was meeting later Tuesday in Madrid with Spanish
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI, with a visit planned as
well to Spain’s parliament.
Kicking off a busy week, Zelenskyy was in Paris on Monday where he
signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 Rafale warplanes from France,
along with drones and ground-to-air systems.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, attends a joint press
conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee
Palace in Paris, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Sarah Meyssonnier, Pool
Photo via AP)
On the battlefield, Ukraine launched a surprise aerial attack on
energy infrastructure in occupied parts of its eastern Donetsk
region.
The Russian-appointed head of the partially occupied region, Denis
Pushilin, on Tuesday morning reported an “unprecedented” Ukrainian
attack that damaged two thermal power stations in the region and
left many areas without power. A day earlier, Pushilin also reported
Ukrainian drones attacking energy infrastructure in the region,
denying power to around 500,000 consumers. The occupied part of the
region has also endured water shortages.
Ukrainian forces, despite being heavily outnumbered, are fighting
hard to prevent Russia’s army from capturing any more of Donetsk.
In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, meanwhile, a 17-year-old
girl was killed and 10 other people were wounded in a Russian
missile strike on the town of Berestyn, located about 110 kilometers
(70 miles) from the Russian border, regional head Oleh Syniehubov
said.
Russian drones sparked multiple fires in the central Ukrainian city
of Dnipro last night, injuring two people, said Vladyslav Haivanenko,
the head of the regional military administration. The drones damaged
six residential buildings, as well as the local offices of Ukraine’s
public broadcaster Suspilne, though the company said the building
was empty at the time.
Ukraine’s railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said that train cars and
other infrastructure were damaged in the Dnipro attack.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia fired four ballistic Iskander-M
missiles, along with 114 strike and decoy drones at the country
overnight.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday that its air
defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian
regions.
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