In response to Vladimir Putin's proposal for direct negotiations in Istanbul on May 15, Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the first step should be a ceasefire, which will be the start of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. He expressed hope that Russia would confirm a ceasefire—"complete, long-lasting, and reliable"—starting from May 12, as previously proposed by Ukraine and the EU, and assured that Ukraine would then be ready to meet.
French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin's proposal a "first step," but emphasized that it is not enough. According to him, this counterproposal demonstrated that Putin is "looking for ways forward, but still has the desire to buy time."
"First a 30-day ceasefire, then everything else. Russia should not disguise the desire to continue the war under verbal constructions," wrote the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, in Telegram.
Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, also did not support Putin's idea of holding talks before a ceasefire. "As President Trump has repeatedly said, stop the killing! First—an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and then—negotiations, not the other way around," Kellogg wrote on the social network X.
Russia insists on the reverse order of actions. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, stated that negotiations in Istanbul should begin first, and then a truce can be discussed. "First negotiations about the root causes, and then we can talk about a truce," TASS quotes her.
In the administration of the President of Ukraine, as Zakharova believes, they "misread the transcript of the Russian President's statement and the hundreds and hundreds of comments from world political figures and publications in the media in his support."