U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that there would be no progress toward peace in Ukraine until he meets with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as much-hyped Moscow-Kyiv talks in Turkey turned into a huge nothingburger.
“Look, nothing is gonna happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One en route to the United Arab Emirates. “And he wasn’t gonna go … He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything will happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we are gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Turkey ready for talks, but Putin refused to attend and instead sent a lower-level delegation, angering the Kyiv side and throwing into doubt whether there would be any negotiations at all.
Kyiv, which had Zelenskyy, his top aide and his foreign and defense ministers heading a high-level delegation, aimed to show Trump that Russia is the real obstacle to peace.
It wanted to keep the U.S. president invested in Ukraine, and also pressure Russia to commit to an unconditional ceasefire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov belittled Zelenskyy and said that any kind of pause in the conflict will be used to rearm Ukraine, which has been resisting Russian attacks on its soil for more than a decade.
Moscow has once again dismissed a ceasefire, and not backed down on any of its original war goals from the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, notably including Ukraine disarming, dropping its NATO aspirations and reinstating dominance of Russian language, church and culture in its society.
The Ukrainian side said that signs pointed to Istanbul being another “Russian charade.”
“The Russian chair in Turkey is de facto empty. Because it makes little difference whether Mr. Nobody, sent by Putin, and his insignificant colleagues sit in their chairs or not. They are not the ones making decisions. And the person who does — Putin — is either afraid to come or does not take the U.S.-led peace effort seriously,” said a Ukrainian diplomatic official who was granted anonymity to discuss the topic.
“Still, we are considering sending someone at the appropriate level to at least hear what these people have to say and whether they are able to decide at least anything. If they are willing to have a serious conversion, we may engage in it. Otherwise, we will have the right to conclude that this is a Russian charade, not meaningful work for peace,” the official added.
After a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, Zelenskyy said he was sending a delegation, led by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, to talk to the Russians and Americans in Istanbul. He said he agreed to that out of respect for Erdoğan and Trump.
Ukraine’s leader will not attend, though, after Putin snubbed the meeting. Zelenskyy is instead going to European Political Community summit in Tirana with Erdoğan on Friday.
“Our team will be there ready to discuss ceasefire tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said, adding: “We will not recognize all occupied territories as Russian.”
“We want [a] demonstration of pressure on Russia, on Putin. Sanctions from Europe and United States as a minimum.” Zelenskyy added.
If negotiations take place, these will be the first official Ukraine-Russia talks since a March 2022 Istanbul meeting, which was blown up by the discovery of a massacre committed by Russian forces in the town of Bucha near Kyiv.
Prior to the planned negotiations, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with 145 drones, injuring dozens of people, and continued to grind forward on the enormous battlefield in the country’s east.
“Russians are getting ready to continue their offensive in Ukraine while pushing for negotiations, and that’s a normal practice, let’s be honest,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, told reporters Wednesday in Kyiv. “Talks do not mean a solution.”
And Kremlin troops are already eyeing a new region — Ukraine’s eastern industrial stronghold of Dnipro.
“They are still too far behind to try to get to Dnipro, but they will be pushing for the region. We have to deal with the enemy that wants to destroy our entire state,” Budanov added.
This story has been updated.
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