“You can stop your war.” That is the message Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put to Vladimir Putin in an open letter published on the president’s website on June 5, 2026. His office says the letter has also gone to other countries, including the United States.
The letter asks for a face-to-face meeting with the Russian leader. Zelenskyy has seldom addressed Putin directly, but he has repeatedly said such a meeting is necessary for any agreement on territory. The Guardian, which published the full text, reported that Putin has ruled out direct talks before, calling Zelenskyy “illegitimate” and saying he would meet him only to finalise a deal agreed in advance.
The pitch
Zelenskyy proposes setting a clear date and holding the meeting in a neutral country. “Switzerland, Türkiye, the countries of the Arab world” could host, he wrote. He rejects the idea of going to Moscow: “there is nothing for a Ukrainian leader to do in your capital.”
Europe and the United States, he argues, should be part of the process as guarantors. Ukrainian and European questions, he said, “are not decided in Anchorage,” a reference to the Alaska summit. Ukraine is also ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of negotiations, and for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war. He also asks for serious steps to return civilians and children taken during the war.
The letter points to the failure of earlier deals, the Minsk agreements among them. Zelenskyy says that is why the two leaders must first find direct answers, “and not hide from difficult issues behind formulas, technical working groups, or endless time lost in shuttle diplomacy.”
Claims about the war
Much of the text is an argument that time is turning against Moscow. The figures are Zelenskyy’s own, and the Guardian does not verify them. He says a report he received the day before put Russian losses in May at more than 30,000 soldiers killed or seriously wounded, with video confirmation of each. By his count 63% of Russian battlefield losses are deaths and 37% are wounded.
He says Russians are tiring of drones and missiles, gasoline shortages, rising prices and what he calls an intention to launch a second wave of mobilisation. He claims intelligence reports show Putin weighing plans to continue the war into 2027 and 2028, and says Ukraine is preparing for an effort to pull Belarus deeper into the conflict. He also cites activity around Transnistria.
The tone is not conciliatory throughout. Zelenskyy writes that the war is “your personal choice,” and that it was “a war without a real cause.” Yet he closes on a warning rather than a threat. “when Russia grows tired, change comes,” he says, calling that a fact of Russian history and not a threat from himself or Ukraine.
