Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will hold “important” talks in Turkey, in a fresh diplomatic push after more than four and a half years of war with Russia.
Zelenskiy announced the trip in his nightly video address on Friday, saying the discussions were linked to the resumption next month of talks aimed at moving towards a resolution of the conflict. “Important negotiations will take place in Turkey. We are also working to ensure that all available diplomatic opportunities are pursued,” he said.
“We expect that in November we will be able to move towards the formats that have been under discussion for such a long time,” he added, without disclosing the agenda for the Saturday meeting.
The visit was confirmed by President Tayyip Erdoğan’s communications director, Burhanettin Duran, who said on X that Zelenskiy would meet Erdoğan on Saturday in Istanbul. Turkey has repeatedly offered to help facilitate talks aimed at ending the war, and Ukrainian and Russian officials have held several meetings in the country since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The Istanbul trip comes as Zelenskiy presses for a new round of diplomacy in November. Earlier this week he said he hoped a trilateral meeting between peace negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States would take place in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 10 November, and that Kyiv wanted Europe to be involved in the talks on how to end the war.
Whether the Turkey visit produces movement towards that format remains to be seen. No joint statement or agreed agenda has been published, and Russia has not publicly confirmed any new round of talks. The significance of the Istanbul meeting will therefore depend less on the fact of the visit itself than on what, if anything, the two presidents agree to pursue in November.
For Ukraine, the diplomatic effort runs alongside a war now in its fifth year, with the front line largely static and international attention split between several crises. A credible negotiating format — one that includes Kyiv, Moscow, Washington and, in Ukraine’s view, Europe — has been the missing piece in successive rounds of talks, and Zelenskiy appears to be using the Turkey trip to try to put one in place before the end of the year.
Sources: Reuters, “Zelenskiy says he will head to Turkey for talks”, 30 October 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/zelenskiy-says-he-will-head-turkey-talks-2026-10-30/
