Ex-Zelenskyy Aide Urges Moscow Talks With Putin as November Peace Meetings Loom

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 25

Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskyy’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, said he should go to Moscow and strike acceptable compromises with Vladimir Putin rather than keep rejecting direct talks.
Mendel argued Zelenskyy’s past in Russia could help: she said he earned his first millions there, knew figures in Putin’s elite and once campaigned on peace before winning 73% of Ukraine’s 2019 runoff vote.
Her appeal comes ahead of another round of technical-level peace talks expected in November, potentially in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland, with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner helping prepare renewed negotiations.
Direct leader-to-leader talks remain fraught: Putin offered to host Zelenskyy in Moscow in 2025, but Zelenskyy refused while Russian attacks continued, later joking at the U.N. that he would go to Moscow “on a missile.”
More than 4 years after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, negotiations are still deadlocked over territory, security guarantees and ceasefire terms, even as a temporary Oleshky ceasefire is set to aid roughly 1,700-2,000 civilians.