Zelenskyy shuns Russian demands, says open to direct talks with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's maximalist demands mean there's no point in continuing with lower-level talks aimed at brokering an end to the war. Calling Russia's conditions for peace an "ultimatum," Zelenskyy said he remains willing to meet directly with President Vladimir Putin. But low-level talks such as those that took place in Istanbul on Monday make no sense unless they lead to a meeting of the two leaders, he said.

"To continue diplomatic meetings in Istanbul at a level that does not resolve anything further is, in my opinion, meaningless," Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv Wednesday.

Zelenskyy is upping the pressure on Putin after a pair of audacious attacks against Russian targets in recent days that represented an embarrassing setback for the Kremlin. US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said yesterday that additional sanctions on Russian are "ready to drop," based on his conversation with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

Speaking later on Wednesday, the head of Russia's delegation to the Istanbul talks, Vladimir Medinsky, reiterated that Russia wasn't immediately ready for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy.

"We conveyed your position that a meeting at the level of heads of state is possible, but it needs to be substantively worked out with results," he told Putin during a meeting held on video conference. Speaking at the meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told Putin the ongoing contacts with Ukraine in Turkey are "important and useful," adding they "produced concrete results."