Zelensky says negotiations with Putin only way to end war

WASHINGTON • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his plea for talks with his Russian counterpart, taking to US television to say negotiations were the only way to "end this war".

He stressed that he and President Vladimir Putin were the only principals able to thrash out a deal to stop the fighting, now in its fourth week.

But he signalled he would lay down red lines against ceding Ukrainian territory, including two pro-Moscow breakaway regions.

"I'm ready for negotiations with him," Mr Zelensky told CNN show Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday.

"I think without negotiations we cannot end this war," he said through a translator.

The reiteration of Mr Zelensky's call for peace talks came as he and other Ukrainians accused Russia of committing war crimes after the authorities said the invading forces had bombed a school sheltering some 400 people in the besieged city of Mariupol.

"Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us," said Mr Zelensky.

The leader, who has emerged as a national hero for his very public stance against Mr Putin and his forces, has spoken of Ukrainians' fierce resistance to the invasion and told Russia that several thousand of its soldiers have died in battle so far.

"If there is just 1 per cent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance... to have the possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin," he said.

"Dialogue is the only way out (and) I think it's just the two of us, me and Putin, who can make an agreement on this," Mr Zelensky said. "If these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war."

Mr Zelensky has repeatedly warned of the potential for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to mushroom into an all-out global war.

Last month, in a move seen as precipitating the conflict, Mr Putin recognised two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent entities, and debate has simmered about whether Mr Zelensky might concede the regions as a way to bring the war to a close.

But on Sunday, Mr Zelensky stood defiant. "You cannot just demand from Ukraine to recognise some territories as independent republics," he told CNN.

"These compromises are simply wrong," he said. "We have to come up with a model where Ukraine will not lose its sovereignty, its territorial integrity."

The crisis in Ukraine, in which Mr Putin has sought to eradicate pro-Western leanings in the former Soviet state, has already triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Mr Zelensky, who has emphasised his Judaism in seeking to rally Jewish and Israeli support for his country against the Russian invasion, addressed Israel's Parliament on Sunday.

He thanked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for efforts to broker talks in a video released on Telegram late on Sunday.

"We are grateful... for his every effort. So sooner or later we could start the conversation with Russia. Perhaps in Jerusalem," said Mr Zelensky. "This is the right place for finding peace. If this is possible."

Mr Bennett has held regular phone calls with Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin, and also had a three-hour meeting with Mr Putin at the Kremlin on March 5.

He has walked a careful diplomatic line since Russia launched its invasion on Feb 24.

Turkey has also said it is ready to host a meeting between Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russia and Ukraine were nearing agreement on "critical" issues and he was hopeful for a ceasefire if the two sides did not backtrack.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told Turkish media the sides were negotiating Ukraine's neutrality, disarmament and security guarantees, so-called "denazification", and the status of the Russian language, the breakaway Donbass region and annexed Crimea.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE