When the President of Ukraine arrives in Turkey, Volodymyr Zelenskyi will meet with the leader of the country, Rajab, Tayyip Erdogan, but a major part of the trip is to send a message that he is ready for talks to face with Vladimir Putin, even if he was not the Russian president.
On Thursday, Turkey will host the first direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia since 2022, Putin’s meeting suggested on Saturday at the same time that he refused to cease to shoot 30 days, despite the warning from Europe that Moscow demanded or parallels to the agreement New rounds of penalties.
Instead, in an attempt to look like he is ready to negotiate, Putin suggested restarting the failed peace talks held in Istanbul in late March of 2022 just as Russia was Abandoning her unsuccessful attempt to push Kyiv.
The response to Putin’s proposal was quickly, and it may be surprising.
US President Donald Trump announced that the talks should continue even without a ceasefire, noting that since he was on his way to the Middle East, he might come down.
Zelenskyy pledged that he would come to Istanbul to meet Putin directly, a clear attempt to overcome the leader who rarely leaves Russia and participates in carefully controlled events inside the country.
Russia says it will get a delegation in Istanbul, but the Kremlin spokesman says Putin has not officially mentioned who will get reports that the country’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, will go to Türkiye.
Among the Ukraine allies, the expectation is that Putin will be not attending.
“I think it is a good step if I sat … but I don’t think (Putin) dare,” said Kaja Callas, head of the European Union’s foreign policy, during a summit in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
“Putin has shown very clearly that he still wants to war,” said Callas.
Under the Western pressure to agree to an unconditional ceasefire for 30 days, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelinsky agreed to meet direct peace talks in Türkiye.
The increasing frustration
More than two months have passed since Ukraine agreed to a 30 -day ceasefire, and the US administration grows increasingly with Moscow refusing to stop fighting and start If there is no progress soon.
Last week US Vice President JD Vance said Russia is asking for “a lot.”
Trump said that the talks in Istanbul can produce “good results”, but if they do not do Washington, they look at Russia as hanging, it may increase sour relations.
Dozens of Senate members are part of a The two parties group It is currently working on legislation to reveal more sanctions targeting Russia if the peace talks are floundering.
“The Russian President (the talks) suggested that he wanted to withdraw this,” said Hanna Selst, an old, unacceptable colleague at the European Policy Analysis Center.
“The ultimate goal is not to make Trump very angry with the Kremlin, start Ukraine’s support completely and increase sanctions against Russia.”
Silist, who lives in Odyssea, Ukraine, as she is also the director of security studies at the “Ukrainian Publisher”, said that it is very important that the United States will participate in the talks because, unlike Europe, Russia will speak to Washington.
Given that Russia is constantly raising the war as an agent with the West, it says that US officials need to be on the table.
Given global security issues, she also says Europe.
While Trump said he would attend the talks if it was “useful”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Istanbul, and according to Reuters, American envoys Keith Keel, Steve Witkeov.
Witkoff has already made Four trips To Moscow this year to meet Putin, who has not skipped any of his demands for Ukrainian lands and insists that the country needs to remain neutral and its army is greatly weakened.
2022 Negotiations
Four days after Russia launched a large scale, delegations from Moscow and Kiev met in Belarus for peace talks, according to his consequences. New York TimesWhich published the draft negotiating documents from the days preceding the war.
After meeting in Belarus, there were video calls, then, on March 29, the two sides met in Istanbul. The documents revealed the areas in which Russia and Ukraine were able to negotiate the agreements as well as they were still far.
While the Kiev negotiators agreed to abandon NATO membership and accept the Russian occupation of parts of their lands, they refused to recognize Russian sovereignty over them.
There were flagrant differences about the strength of the Ukraine army, along with what guarantees security that Kiev would get it if he was being attacked again.
Cillst, who spoke with some of the negotiations participants at the time, told CBC News that Ukraine is much stronger now in negotiations.
Over the past three years, it has managed to restore some of the lands that Russia has seized in the first weeks of the war, and its army has been strengthened through Western weapons and the rapid development of its defense industry.
She says that this new round of conversations will not lead to much if Russia does not make any concessions, instead, it is appointed to use negotiations to obtain what he did not win in the battlefield.
While Russia rejected invitations to a 30 -day truce, Putin announced by one side a three -day ceasefire last week to coincide with the country’s celebration of victory day, which represents the defeat of Nazi forces during World War II.
Both sides stated that the fighting continued through the confrontation line during that period.
During a meeting with business officials on Tuesday, Putin claimed that 50,000 to 60,000 volunteers are recruited with the Russian army every month.
While he said that the country needs to be ready to face additional sanctions, he did not mention the suspended talks in Istanbul.
Türkiye’s balance did
Turkey, which is trying to balance its relations with both Russia and Ukraine, was credited with helping to secure the Black Marine Cereal Initiative in 2022, which allowed a safe passage of agricultural export from the Black Sea ports until Russia refused to extend the deal in 2023.
While conversations between the two sides have facilitated before, including those that led to the bodies of prisoners, Helen Sari Ertim, a political scientist at Istanbul University, says she does not believe that Türkiye has an effect on intervention as a mediator if the United States decides to have enough and land.
““Türkiye is not in a position to pressure Russia,” Sari Ertim said in an interview with CBC News on Zoom.
“The United States can, Trump can, but Türkiye cannot be a regional power.”
But it says that Türkiye’s position is unique. He is a member of NATO and has Send drones To Ukraine, but half of natural gas imports come from Russia. It has joint investment projects with Moscow, including the largest nuclear power plant, which has become this year in Türkiye and was built by Rosatom, a Russian government company.
“Türkiye can provide a safe place for these types of negotiations,” said Sari Ertim.
“Trump is tired of the war … Europe cannot continue to support Ukraine to the maximum. They all need someone to collect the sides together.”
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