The conversation took place shortly after the conclusion of the Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, which ended with little progress beyond an agreement on prisoner exchange.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined Zelensky during the call.
“Ukraine is ready to take the fastest possible steps for real peace, and it is important that the world holds strong positions,” Zelensky wrote.
“If the Russians refuse a complete and unconditional stop to the fire and killings, there must be strong sanctions. Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war.”
Soon after, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed the condemnation of Russia’s unwillingness to stop the fighting.
“The Russians in Istanbul have de facto broken off negotiations and refused to cease fire,” Tusk wrote on X. “Time to increase the pressure.”
Following the call, Starmer said that Russia’s negotiation position remained clearly unacceptable, noting that this was not the first instance of such a situation.
“We just had a meeting with President Zelensky and then a phone call with President Trump to discuss the developments in the negotiations today,” Sky News quoted the British prime minister as saying.
“So as a result of that meeting with President Zelensky and that call with President Trump, we are now closely aligning our responses and will continue to do so.”
Macron also said it was “unacceptable” that Russia again ignored a European and US call for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
It is “unacceptable that Russia and President Putin have not responded for a second time to the demands made by the Americans, supported by Ukraine and the Europeans,” Macron stated.
He was speaking alongside the leaders of the UK, Germany and Poland in the Albanian capital Tirana, after a call with Donald Trump.
In a post on X, Macron accused Russia of not wanting peace and “merely trying to buy time by continuing the war.”
No further details were provided about the content or duration of the call.
After Moscow proposed to hold peace talks in Turkey this week, Zelensky agreed and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for a face-to-face meeting. The Russian leader declined to attend and appointed his aide, Vladimir Medinsky, to lead the talks.
The Russian delegation included deputy ministers and lower-level aides and excluded top officials like Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Zelensky commented that Moscow has dispatched a “sham delegation,” while Western officials presented the move as an indication that Putin is not serious about peace efforts.
A source in the Ukrainian President’s Office confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Moscow’s delegation insisted that Ukraine retreat from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts, despite Russia not controlling any of them in their entirety.
The Kremlin illegally declared the annexation of the four oblasts following sham referenda in late 2022, incorporating them into Russia’s constitution — a move that holds no weight internationally.
In one positive development to come out of the talks, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement for the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) on a 1,000-for-1,000 basis, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who was leading Ukraine’s delegation, told reporters after the talks on May 16.
