“We asked the Turks about it, we asked some other capitals,” Sybiha told reporters on Tuesday in comments cleared for release on Wednesday, indicating that Ukraine is seeking a neutral venue outside Russia and its close ally Belarus.

Sybiha said Kyiv would consider any location except Belarus or Russia for such a meeting, underscoring longstanding Ukrainian objections to holding talks in countries aligned with Moscow.

Belarus facilitated Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by allowing its territory to be used as a staging ground, a factor that has made it unacceptable to Kyiv as a diplomatic venue.

The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly called for direct talks between Zelensky and Putin as a potential means to accelerate efforts toward a resolution of the conflict.

However, the Kremlin has previously stated that it is willing to host Zelensky in Moscow, a proposal the Ukrainian president has rejected.

Sybiha did not disclose Ankara’s response to the request but emphasized that Ukraine remains open to alternatives. “If another capital, besides Moscow and Belarus, organizes such a meeting, we will go,” he said.

Turkiye has previously positioned itself as a mediator in the conflict, maintaining diplomatic ties with both Kyiv and Moscow while hosting earlier rounds of negotiations.

Separately, Sybiha said he had exchanged written messages with Anita Orban, who is set to become Hungary’s foreign minister following the recent election victory of a new government in Budapest.

Last year, the foundation left out the ambassadors of Russia and its ally Belarus because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The foundation said on Thursday it would invite them, and Iran’s ambassador, to this year’s prize award ceremonies in December, commenting that it sought to include even those who did not share the values of the Nobel Prize.

That announcement prompted the leaders of several Swedish political parties to say they would boycott the ceremonies.

“We recognise the strong reactions in Sweden,” the foundation said in a statement on Saturday.

“We, therefore, choose to repeat last year’s exception to regular practice – that is, to not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm.”

The prize-winners are announced in early October and five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for the next 50 years. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo where separate festivities are held.

Speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin said Russian tactical nuclear warheads had already been delivered to close ally Belarus, but stressed he saw no need for Russia to resort to nuclear weapons for now.

“As you know we were negotiating with our ally, (Belarusian President (Alexander) Lukashenko, that we would move a part of these tactical nuclear weapons to the territory of Belarus – this has happened,” said Putin.

“The first nuclear warheads were delivered to the territory of Belarus. But only the first ones, the first part. But we will do this job completely by the end of the summer or by the end of the year.”

The move, Moscow’s first deployment of such warheads – shorter-range nuclear weapons that could potentially be used on the battlefield – outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union was intended as a warning to the West about arming and supporting Ukraine, the Russian leader said.

“…It is precisely as an element of deterrence so that all those who are thinking about inflicting a strategic defeat on us are not oblivious to this circumstance,” said Putin, using a diplomatic term for a defeat so severe that Russian power would be diminished on the world stage for decades.

Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Putin, said late on Tuesday his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons that included some three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan in 1945.

The Russian leader announced in March he had agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, pointing to the U.S deployment of such weapons in a host of European countries over many decades.

Putin Says West Wants Strategic Defeat

The United States has criticised Putin’s decision but has said it has no intention of altering its own stance on strategic nuclear weapons and has not seen any signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

The Russian step is nonetheless being watched closely by Washington and its allies as well as by China, which has repeatedly cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

Putin said the West was doing everything it could to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine where Moscow is locked in the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two after invading its neighbour last year in what it called “a special military operation.”

But Russia had no need to resort to nuclear weapons for now, said Putin, signalling no change in Moscow’s nuclear posture which only envisages such a move if the existence of the Russian state is threatened.

“Nuclear weapons have been made to ensure our security in the broadest sense of the word and the existence of the Russian state, but we…have no such need (to use them),” Putin said.

But he said talks with the West to reduce Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal, the world’s largest, were a non-starter.

“Just talking about this (the potential use of nuclear weapons) lowers the nuclear threshold. We have more than NATO countries and they want to reduce our numbers. Screw them,” said Putin.

Sounding defiant as he addressed his country’s political and business elite, he said a Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces in Ukraine had so far not had any meaningful success. Kyiv’s forces were suffering heavy losses and had “no chance” against Russia’s military, he said.

Ukraine would soon run out of its own military equipment, making it totally reliant on hardware supplied by the West, undermining its ability to fight for long, he suggested.

Recalling his stated objectives at the start of the war to “demilitarise” and “denazify” Ukraine, Putin said:

“As for demilitarisation, soon Ukraine will stop using its own equipment altogether. There’s nothing left. Everything on which they fight and everything that they use is brought in from the outside. Well, you can’t fight like that for long.”

Putin Gives Warning On F-16S

Independent military analysts say Ukraine has outperformed Russia’s much larger army in nearly 16 months of war, forcing it into major retreats around the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson.

Ukraine’s military chiefs said on Friday that advancing Ukrainian troops were facing “desperate resistance” from Russian forces around the city of Bakhmut, which Russia captured last month after the longest battle of the war.

Ukraine says it has recaptured seven villages and 100 square km (38 square miles) in the early stages of its counteroffensive.

But Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday its forces had repelled numerous attempted counterattacks by the Ukrainian army at different frontline locations in the last 24 hours, inflicting severe losses on Kyiv’s forces.

Putin said Western-supplied hardware such as German-made Leopard tanks was regularly destroyed and if Kyiv got U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets from its allies, they would go up in flames too.

“F-16s will also be burning, there is no doubt. But if they will be stationed outside Ukraine and used in combat operations we will have to look at how to engage and where to engage those assets being used in combat operations against us.”

That, he said, represented “a serious danger” of dragging NATO further into the conflict.

Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone and South Korea ran unopposed for a spot on the 15-member body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security. In the only competitive race, Slovenia beat out Belarus. The five elected nations will replace Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates.

The Security Council is the only U.N. body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing use of force. It has five permanent veto-wielding members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

To ensure geographical representation, seats are allocated to regional groups. But even if candidates are running unopposed in their group, they still need to win the support of more than two-thirds of the General Assembly.

Guyana received 191 votes, Sierra Leone 188, Algeria received 184 votes, South Korea 180.

Slovenia won 153 votes to beat Belarus, which received 38 votes.

Belarus had been a candidate unopposed since 2007 for the 2024/25 Eastern European seat. Slovenia entered the race in December 2021 after a brutal crackdown by the authorities in Belarus on protests following a 2020 presidential election.

Russia has since used the territory of Belarus as a launchpad for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“The Russians have always argued that a lot of states support Ukraine in public at the U.N., but sympathize with Russia in private. But this secret ballot does not support that claim at all,” International Crisis Group U.N. Director Richard Gowan said.

Russia moved ahead last month with a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. It is the Kremlin’s first deployment of such weapons outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Foreign Minister Sergey Aleinik spoke with Abdulrahman Suleiman Al-Ahmad, who is also the Kingdom’s ambassador to Russia, about a variety of topics.

Al-Ahmad was informed by Aleinik that his nation supports Saudi Arabia’s proposal to host Expo 2030. According to a statement from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, he also stressed that Riyadh will prepare the event to a “high standard” and that Minsk would provide all assistance needed to make it successful.

The expansion of political communication, the potential for increased trade and economic cooperation, and the interaction of investment between the Kingdom and Belarus were also on the agenda.

The host nation for Expo 2030 is anticipated to be chosen in November. Riyadh is up against Rome, Busan, South Korea, and Odessa, Ukraine.