ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that the Russian army seeks to cross into his country’s Dnipropetrovsk region as its military offensive continues, state news agency Ukrinform reported on Wednesday.

“They will do everything to cross the administrative border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. They want it. So far they have not succeeded,” Zelenskyy told journalists in a briefing on Tuesday.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces also seek to take control of the city of Pokrovsk, a key front in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, arguing that the region’s capture, as well as the country’s easternmost Luhansk region, remain Moscow’s strategic goals since 2014.

He said he believed Russia intends to create a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) “security buffer zone” in the northeastern Sumy region, where Governor Oleh Hryhorov said late Monday that four villages were taken under Russian control.

“Now they are accumulating troops in the Sumy direction. More than 50,000,” Zelenskyy said, adding that they have taken measures to prevent an offensive in the north.

He also dismissed ideas about a potential Russian offensive in the southern Kherson region.

He further said Ukraine needs an additional $30 billion to fully launch its weapons production.

Zelenskyy said he considers Türkiye, the Vatican, and Switzerland as the three most realistic venues for future direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that such negotiations in Belarus were “simply impossible.”

The Ukrainian president further declared his readiness to engage in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in any format, including one in a trilateral format that could also involve US President Donald Trump.

"If our decision can be discussed immediately without technical meetings at the leadership level, then we are ready to meet immediately at the leadership level without a technical meeting," Zelenskyy said, adding that a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and the US would be good if the subject of the talks is a ceasefire.

However, he later noted that the participation of European countries in the negotiations is desirable in the case of discussions regarding security guarantees.

He also said Kyiv would read Moscow’s proposals as part of the peace memorandum being drafted by Russia, adding that Ukraine would respond to the document accurately.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the creation of a "security buffer zone" along the border with Ukraine.

Türkiye facilitated the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years in Istanbul on May 16, where the two sides agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners involving a total of 1,000 people from each side.