Zelensky, European leaders speak with Trump, call for pressure on Russia following Istanbul peace talks
President Volodymyr Zelensky and several top European leaders held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on May 16, the Ukrainian leader announced on Telegram.
The conversation took place shortly after the conclusion of the Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, which ended with little progress beyond an agreement on prisoner exchange.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined Zelensky during the call.
“Ukraine is ready to take the fastest possible steps for real peace, and it is important that the world holds strong positions,” Zelensky wrote.
“If the Russians refuse a complete and unconditional stop to the fire and killings, there must be strong sanctions. Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war."
Soon after, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed the condemnation of Russia’s unwillingness to stop the fighting.
“The Russians in Istanbul have de facto broken off negotiations and refused to cease fire,” Tusk wrote on X. “Time to increase the pressure."
Following the call, Starmer said that Russia’s negotiation position remained clearly unacceptable, noting that this was not the first instance of such a situation.
“We just had a meeting with President Zelensky and then a phone call with President Trump to discuss the developments in the negotiations today,” Sky News quoted the British prime minister as saying.
“So as a result of that meeting with President Zelenskyy and that call with President Trump, we are now closely aligning our responses and will continue to do so."
No further details were provided about the content or duration of the call.
After Moscow proposed to hold peace talks in Turkey this week, Zelensky agreed and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for a face-to-face meeting. The Russian leader declined to attend and appointed his aide, Vladimir Medinsky, to lead the talks.
The Russian delegation included deputy ministers and lower-level aides and excluded top officials like Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Zelensky commented that Moscow has dispatched a “sham delegation,” while Western officials presented the move as an indication that Putin is not serious about peace efforts.
A source in the Ukrainian President’s Office confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Moscow’s delegation insisted that Ukraine retreat from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts, despite Russia not controlling any of them in their entirety.
The Kremlin illegally declared the annexation of the four oblasts following sham referenda in late 2022, incorporating them into Russia’s constitution — a move that holds no weight internationally.
In one positive development to come out of the talks, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement for the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was leading Ukraine’s delegation, told reporters after the talks on May 16.
Kyiv and its allies have urged Moscow to adopt an unconditional ceasefire starting May 12 as the first step toward peace talks — a proposal Russia has ignored.
While Ukrainian officials said they hope to discuss a possible truce in Istanbul, Russia presented the meeting as the continuation of the 2022 talks and stressed the need to address what it sees as the "root causes" of the war.
The U.S. president initially voiced optimism about the meeting's prospects and suggested he might attend on May 16 if progress is made. He later downplayed the expectations, saying that progress is unlikely before he meets Putin.
The White House has shown growing frustration with the lack of progress.
Trump, who vowed to end the war within 100 days of taking office, has missed that self-imposed deadline. He has alternated between blaming both sides for the impasse and suggesting that breakthroughs are still possible.
The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova