Volodymyr Zelenskyy has despatched a delegation to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia, paving the best way for the primary direct negotiations between the 2 nations since March 2022 – though Washington has warned that no breakthrough is probably going until Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to fulfill.
Zelenskyy stated the talks may start as early as Thursday night or Friday and that Kyiv would deal with pushing for an instantaneous 30-day ceasefire.
Talking at a press convention within the Turkish capital, Ankara, after a gathering with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Zelenskyy stated he had determined to dispatch a delegation regardless that Russia had despatched a lower-level crew, as a way to sign to Trump that Ukraine stays firmly dedicated to searching for an finish to the warfare.
“Unfortunately, [the Russians] are not serious enough about the negotiations … Out of respect for President Trump and Erdoğan, I have decided to send our delegation to Istanbul now,” Zelenskyy stated, including that the delegation can be headed by his defence minister, Rustem Umerov.
Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, are anticipated to be in Istanbul on Friday, although it stays unclear what position they’ll play.
The talks will happen on the Dolmabahçe Palace, the grand residence on the European shore of the Bosphorus that hosted a fruitless spherical of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022.
The much-anticipated day on Thursday descended into disarray early on with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations arriving in separate cities a whole bunch of miles aside, casting rapid doubt over whether or not they would meet in any respect.
On Wednesday night the Kremlin had introduced that Putin would skip the talks, rejecting Zelenskyy’s daring proposal for a face-to-face assembly to debate peace.
Looming over all of it was Trump, who raised doubts over the worth of any talks that didn’t contain him and the Russian president. “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he advised reporters onboard Air Pressure One.
Echoing Trump, Rubio advised reporters late on Thursday: “I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin.” He stated any assembly between the 2 would rely on progress this week.
The remarks will dampen hopes in Kyiv and amongst its European allies that Trump is ready to impose robust sanctions if the present talks collapse earlier than he will get the prospect to fulfill Putin – in impact leaving Moscow with little incentive to compromise in Turkey.
Talking throughout a cease in Qatar on Thursday earlier than heading to the UAE, Trump instructed he would possibly nonetheless journey to Turkey on Friday “if something happened” on the talks. However by dusk there was little signal that any last-minute summit involving the US president was within the works.
Zelenskyy and Putin have every been manoeuvring to place themselves favourably in entrance of Trump, who has grown more and more impatient with the sluggish tempo of the talks, with every chief casting the opposite as the principle impediment to progress.
Zelenskyy stated: “I believe the most important thing for Ukraine is to remain constructive and reasonable. That’s why we’re sending a delegation led by the defence ministry – so that no one can claim Ukraine is responsible for derailing the talks.”
Zelenskyy had travelled to Ankara with a crew of his closest aides on Thursday, whereas Russia’s mid-level delegation, led by Vladimir Medinsky, an ultra-conservative, landed earlier within the day in Istanbul, the place a whole bunch of journalists camped out for hours awaiting with out success the beginning of the talks.
All through the convention in Ankara, Zelenskyy sought to border Russia’s alternative of delegation as an indication to Trump that Moscow was not approaching the talks in good religion. He advised reporters that the Russian delegation that arrived in Istanbul didn’t embrace “anyone who actually makes decisions”, accusing Moscow of not making efforts to finish the warfare severely.
“I feel disrespected by Russia. No meeting time, no agenda, no high-level delegation – this is a personal disrespect … [to] Erdoğan, to Trump,” Zelenskyy stated. “We can’t be running around the world looking for Putin,” he added when requested whether or not the Russian president was avoiding a direct assembly with him.
However there’s little proof up to now that Trump is receptive to Zelenskyy’s plea, with the US chief on Thursday refusing to criticise the Russian delegation.
Any hopes of a critical breakthrough seem to have been dashed by Putin’s choice to not ship his two most senior diplomats, Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov, and as a substitute delegate the talks to lower-ranking aides.
Observers say that by appointing Medinsky, a former tradition minister, to steer the delegation, Putin is signalling he has little curiosity in real compromise and stays dedicated to the identical goals he pursued in 2022: stripping Ukraine of its sovereignty and army functionality.
Medinsky, who additionally led the failed peace talks in March 2022, held a swiftly organized press convention on the Russian consulate in Istanbul. He described the present negotiations as a continuation of these earlier talks, which included sweeping calls for akin to limiting Ukraine’s armed forces and blocking it from rebuilding with western help. Kyiv has repeatedly rejected these phrases as unacceptable.
Medinsky additionally echoed a well-worn Kremlin speaking level, saying Russia aimed to deal with the “root causes” of the warfare – a phrase regularly utilized by Putin to justify the invasion.
Boris Bondarev, a former senior Russian diplomat who resigned after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, stated: “Putin clearly doesn’t want any genuine peace talks, nor any ceasefire, unless it’s entirely on his terms.”
Bondarev stated Putin had proposed the talks in Turkey with the intention of convincing Trump he was dedicated to peace, whereas he remained intent on persevering with the preventing on the bottom.
With Russian forces making sluggish however regular progress on the battlefield, Putin – seemingly assured that Russia can outlast Ukraine – is refusing to halt the preventing earlier than securing main concessions from Kyiv and the west.
Even earlier than Moscow and Kyiv meet in Istanbul, Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s European allies had been urging the US to impose new sanctions if the perimeters fail to agree on a ceasefire.
“If there is no ceasefire, no bilateral meetings, we are asking for sanctions to end the war more quickly,” Zelenskyy stated. “We want a strong package of sanctions against Russia from the US, European countries – there must be pressure from the global south.
“Trump’s position is to put pressure on both sides. I believe that we were put under more pressure,” Zelenskyy stated, including that Ukraine had “step by step demonstrated a willingness for negotiations”.
He stated: “You have to pressurise the side that does not want to end the war.”
