An important step: Russia is speaking in Turkey-what can be expected Conflict news

Russia and Ukraine are preparing for talks in Turki on Thursday, although President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Folodimir Zelinski The meeting directly For the first time in three years, the Kremlin was released late on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump, who earlier indicated that he may join negotiations, will not attend, according to American officials.

Here is what we know about the talks, what prompted them, and it is expected to attend, and why the negotiations are concerned:

Why are the conversations taking place?

Sunday, Putin suggested the idea One of the direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turki, instead of the indirect talks that the United States and others tried to mediate between neighbors in the war. Putin referred to the direct talks that occurred in 2022 while promoting it.

“It was not Russia that cut negotiations in 2022. Kiev was, however, we suggest that Kiev resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said on Sunday.

In February 2022, Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine. Soon after, Russia and Ukraine held talks in the Turkish capital, Istanbul.

According to Zelinski, the talks collapsed because Russia requested that Ukraine recognize the Donbas region, which extends to the regions of Ukraine Donetsk and Luhansk – which Russia occupied during its invasion. Zelenskyy added that Russia wants Ukraine to receive long -term weapons, and make constitutional amendments to declare neutrality and reduce its armed forces significantly. “There were never any negotiations; it was a warning from a murderer,” said Zellinski at the time.

While Zelinski had previously seen that any peace agreement would require Russia to abandon the Ukrainian lands that it occupied, in December last year, Zelinski said The “hot stage” of the war may end if NATO offers security guarantees for a part of Ukraine currently under Kiev’s control.

He added that the return of the land occupied by Russia can be negotiated at a later time.

“The pressure practiced by the United States has evolved to try to put an end to fighting in Ukraine over time,” Kiir Giles, a senior consultant at Chatham House Research in London, told Al Jazerera. “It seems that the latest elements in this development, especially with regard to European solidarity with Ukraine, have prompted Russia to participate in direct talks.”

Putin’s last batch of conversations came a day after the four main European allies in Ukraine were given a warning to accept an unconditional shooting for 30 days or face renewable sanctions. This warning came after he visited the leaders of European countries, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland Kyiv.

They gave Putin a final date until May 12. On Sunday, May 11, Putin-Don said the ceasefire: “We are committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their goal is to eliminate the radical causes of the conflict, to prove a long-term and permanent peace of historical perspective.”

When and where are they detained?

The conversations are scheduled to start approximately at 10 am local time (07:00 GMT), according to the news agency in Russia. They are being held behind closed doors at the Dolmabahus Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, which roams the border between Asia and Europe.

The palace, which is located on the Bosphorus, used to be the main administrative complex of the Ottoman Empire for most of the period between the mid -nineteenth and 1922.

What role did Trump played in this?

The four European leaders – Britain, Kiir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron of France, Faridrich Mirz, and Poland Donald Tusk – said that they had informed Trump on their warning to Russia for a phone call and suggested that he be on board.

But after Putin called for direct talks between Kiev and Moscow, Trump issued a statement on his social platform in fact asking Ukraine to meet Russia “immediately.”

Trump ran his campaign in the 2024 elections on the promise to bring a quick end to the Ukraine war. The Trump administration held multiple meetings, starting in February, with Russian and Ukrainian actors separately in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in attempts to mediate in a deal.

Also in April, the Trump administration indicated that it was back away from providing security guarantees to Ukraine. The Trump administration said it wants Europe to take the initiative to support Ukraine’s defense instead, noting that the United States has other priorities, including border security.

However, in recent weeks, Trump and his team, including Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, expressed his increasing frustration with the lack of meaningful progress in the negotiations and threatened to get out of the efforts made to mediate peace.

Trump explains that his insistence that Ukraine join Istanbul’s talks on May 15: “At least they will be able to determine whether the deal is possible or not, and if not, the European leaders and the United States will know where everything stands, and they can go forward accordingly!”

Who will be there?

“President Trump has supported the idea of ​​direct conversations with Putin. I have publicly expressed her willingness to meet. I will be in Turki. I hope the Russians will not evade the meeting,” Zelinski wrote at one of the X employees on Monday.

On Tuesday, Zellinski announced that he will be in Ankara on Thursday, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet. However, talks with Russia are supposed to be held in Istanbul later.

Trump said that he will send Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkov, and Ukraine’s Special Envoy and Russia Keith Kelog to attend the talks in Istanbul.

Russia announced on Wednesday night its team to meet. Vladimir Midinski, the close assistant of Putin and former Minister of Culture who also led previous tours of failed talks with Ukraine in 2022, will lead the Moscow team. He will have the Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fateno and director of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Igor Costokov.

The former Trump was welcomed to attend the talks himself by Kyiv. “We all in Ukraine appreciate this if President Trump can be with us at this meeting in Turki. This is the right idea. We can change a lot,” Zellinski said.

However, late on Wednesday, US officials explained that Trump will not attend.

The American president is currently in the Middle East, where he spent Wednesday in Qatar, after visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a day ago. On Thursday, Trump will be in the United Arab Emirates before returning to Washington.

What does Putin’s absence mean?

Zelinski had said earlier that he would be present in the talks Only if Putin Also attend. “Putin is the person who determines everything in Russia, so he is the one who must resolve the war. This is his war. Therefore, negotiations must be with him,” Zelinski said in a post on Tuesday.

With Putin not now ready to attend, it is not clear whether Zelinski will personally participate in the conversations or whether he would leave his team to join the negotiations.

However, in many ways, Zelinski scored on Putin by throwing the glove and asked him to attend.

“Zelinski has made a challenge to Russia to show that it has a real interest, it is up to Russia, whether it faced this challenge or not,” Giles said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was also pledge To urge Putin to attend the talks.

What is on the table?

It is difficult to predict what can be discussed specifically in Turkiye conversations.

“It will be a rash to predict whether there will be any meaningful discussion at all, because the acceptable results of both of them are still far apart,” Giles said. “Russia wants to neutralize Ukraine as an independent sovereign country, while Ukraine wants to survive.”

At the present time, Ukraine proposed an unconditional ceasefire for 30 days, while Russia insisted on accepting a series of its demands before joining such a truce. Moscow said it wants assurances of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, and that the truce will not be used by Ukraine to rearm and fill more soldiers. Instead, Putin announced a unilateral ceasefire in recent days that Ukraine says that Moscow has never committed.

“We do not rule out that, during these negotiations, it will be possible to agree on some new pieces, a new ceasefire and the real calm, which Russia will not only notice, but also by the Ukrainian side.

How important are these talks?

Gayls said that if the conversations occur, “it will be an important step forward.”

He added: “Anything referred to as peace talks (so far) was nothing like that,” describing the parallel transmitters that I had with Russia and Ukraine.

On March 19, the United States, Ukraine and Russia announced 30 days of ceasefire On attacks on Russian and Kurdish energy infrastructure, and on March 25, they agreed on a Black Sea dealStop the military use of commercial ships and the use of force in the Black Sea. However, both sides have been blaming the violation of the conditions of these agreements, which have now expired.