On the heels of a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes deep in Russia and recent shifts in Ukraine’s favor on the battlefield, President Volodymyr Zelensky published on Thursday an open letter to President Vladimir V. Putin.
The letter, posted on the Ukrainian president’s website, offered to resume peace talks — but taunted the Russian leader over wartime setbacks, inflation and Russia’s dependence on China. It also made note of Mr. Putin’s advancing age.
Mr. Zelensky has at various points in the war recorded video statements addressing Mr. Putin or the Russian people, including on the first day of Moscow’s invasion in 2022. This letter was among the most scathing direct addresses to Mr. Putin so far.
Mr. Zelensky noted that Mr. Putin has by now spent about half of his 26 years in power as Russia’s paramount leader fighting Ukraine. The timeline counts the Russian military intervention in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014 and the full-scale invasion launched in 2022.
He offered a cease-fire if Mr. Putin wanted one.
Mr. Zelensky said he would meet for direct talks outside the Trump administration’s negotiating process. Those talks, led by Steve Witkoff, a real estate investor, and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, ground to a halt after the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began in February.
Mr. Zelensky suggested including European nations and holding a leaders’ meeting in Switzerland, Turkey or an Arab state. He has offered direct meetings with Mr. Putin before, without result.
Though addressed to Mr. Putin, the open letter seemed intended as well for Mr. Trump’s attention. And it was not clear whether Mr. Zelensky’s appeal was meant to jump-start talks or to denigrate a potential negotiating counterpart.
Woven into the offer for peace talks were needling remarks about a strongman leader unable to defend his own capital, Moscow, or a second city, St. Petersburg, from a nation Mr. Putin invaded four and a half years ago with the goal of a quick win.
“After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll,” Mr. Zelensky wrote to Mr. Putin, who is 73, turning the knife. Mr. Zelensky, who is 25 years younger, has pointed to the Russian leader’s age to cast doubt on the stability of Russia’s one-man-rule political system.
The letter also touched on reports of rising discontent in Russia over gasoline shortages from attacks on refineries, as well as inflation and war fatigue.
Most independent analysts of Russia’s politics say Mr. Putin is not vulnerable to internal unrest.
The letter was posted a day after a drone strike on an oil depot outside St. Petersburg and a day before Mr. Putin is scheduled to deliver a speech to an economic conference at a venue outside that city on Friday. The attack sent a huge cloud of black smoke wafting over the highway leading from the city to the conference site.
The letter appeared to be at least in part a publicity move, trumpeting the long-range drone strike on St. Petersburg, which had both an economic and a psychological impact on Russia. Even before that attack, Mr. Putin scaled down a Victory Day parade in Moscow last month amid worries of other Ukrainian strikes.
“Now we can all see that Russians are finally becoming less comfortable with this reality,” Mr. Zelensky wrote.
In his appeal for direct talks to end the war, Mr. Zelensky asked for a process apart from that led by the Trump administration. Running for election, Mr. Trump promised to end the war in a day, only to have talks stretch out now more than a year.
Mr. Zelensky wrote that the United States had failed to deliver on what he said was an apparent agreement between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.
“We have heard that you were promised in Alaska the resolution of certain issues concerning Ukraine and Europe,” Mr. Zelensky wrote, referring to a summit last summer in Anchorage. Russia has said that Mr. Trump agreed that Ukraine would cede land for peace. Ukraine has not done so.
“You can see for yourself that Ukrainian and European issues are not decided in Anchorage,” Mr. Zelensky wrote.
What Mr. Zelensky might gain from the mixed tactic of poking the bear while appealing for peace is unclear.
Early in his presidency, he adhered to a policy of refraining from provoking Mr. Putin, aides have said. That has shifted.
The letter and the provocative drone strike might buoy spirits inside Ukraine. It might also send to an audience of one — Mr. Trump — a message about Mr. Putin’s declining fortunes. Or it might help stoke domestic discord inside Russia.
In any case, in Ukraine, Russia is seen able to do little in retaliation with missile strikes that it has not already done.
