KYIV, Ukraine, Nov 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he will visit Turkey on Wednesday, in a bid to "reinvigorate" peace talks and to restore prisoner-of-war exchanges with Russia.

Negotiations to end the war have faltered after three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul earlier this year yielded no breakthrough, with Moscow rejecting a ceasefire, stepping up advances on the front and its bombardments of Ukrainian cities.

"We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners," Zelensky said Tuesday on social media.

He did not say who he planned to meet.

"We are also working to restore POW exchanges and bring our prisoners of war home," he added.

Prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of fallen soldiers' bodies were the only tangible results of the talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul between May and July.

The last prisoner exchange was in early October, with Moscow and Kyiv swapping 185 prisoners each.

There was no immediate reaction from Russia to Zelensky's statement.

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was "open to negotiation processes" to resolve the war in Ukraine, but blamed Kyiv and Europe for the current freeze.

Ukraine says Russia has repeatedly demonstrated it does not want to halt its invasion, by outlining unacceptable demands that Kyiv to cede more territory and effectively capitulate to Moscow.

Zelensky was on a European tour to garner support for his depleted army and the country's battered energy infrastructure, amid a mounting Russian advance and an engulfing corruption scandal at home.

He is due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez later on Tuesday. A day earlier, the Ukrainian leader signed an accord with France, which provides for Kyiv to acquire up to 100 fighter jets and other hardware, including drones.