An absence that will be felt. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not assist Thursday in Istanbul in direct talks with the Ukrainiansdespite the invitation of his American counterpart Donald Trump Who had mentioned “the possibility” of going to Türkiye if his Russian counterpart did the same.
The Kremlin unveiled on Wednesday evening the members of the delegation who will go to Istanbul on Thursday for direct talks with the Ukrainians, without mention of the name of Vladimir Putin who had also been invited to go there by his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russian delegation will be led by the presidential advisor Vladimir Medinski, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Galouzine and the Deputy Minister of Defense Alexandre Fomine, according to the list published in the evening by the Kremlin.
This announcement put an end to the possibility that the Russian president meets his Ukrainian counterpart.
Putin’s silence
In recent days, Volodymyr Zelensky had called Vladimir Putin to go “in person” to these discussions, announced by the master of the Kremlin and supposed to open a diplomatic process to find an outcome of more than three years of russian offensive murderous in Ukraine.
The Russian president, who appeared publicly on several occasions since the offer of Volodymyr Zelensky, had kept silent on the subject.
It was in vain that Brazilian President Lula called, during a telephone conversation on Wednesday, his Russian counterpart to go to Istanbul, according to the Brazilian presidency.
Donald Trump, who pushes for a rapid end of the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, said on Wednesday that there was a “possibility” that he will go to Turkey if his Russian counterpart was too. “I don’t know if it goes. I know he would like me to be there. This is a possibility, ”said Donald Trump.
A first despite everything
It is nevertheless the first time That Russian representatives would exchange directly with Ukrainian representatives on the outcome of the conflict since the failure of the initial discussions held in the wake of the trigger of the Russian offensive on a large scale in February 2022.
Volodymyr Zelensky assured that Ukraine was “ready for all forms of negotiations” in order to end the conflict launched in 2022 by Russia.
Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic advisor, Iouri Ouchakov, said on Russian television expecting the meeting to take place “in the morning” and that “political” and “technical” questions would be on the menu.
On the Ukrainian side, Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet Ankara on Wednesday or Thursday the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in Türkiye for these Russian-Ukrainian discussions, as Donald Trump announced on Tuesday. But Marco Rubio was expected on Friday in Istanbul, according to a senior American official, adding to uncertainty about the very date at which the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations will take place.
Opposite positions
Since then, Russia and Ukraine camp. Vladimir Putin still claims that Ukraine gives up joining NATO and the assurance of keeping the Ukrainian regions annexed by Moscow. Unacceptable conditions for kyiv and his allies.
Ukraine, for its part, wants solid “security guarantees” to avoid any new attack on Russia and that the Russian army, which controls around 20 % of its territory, withdraws from it, despite Moscow calls to accept “new realities” on the ground.
Europeans, allies of Ukraine but who struggle to be heard, threatened Russia with “massive” sanctions If it did not accept a cease-fire in the coming days. In the meantime, the EU approved on Wednesday a 17th package of measures against him.
In this moving context, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged other European states and the Americans to maintain “the greatest possible unity” and refuse “dictated peace” by Moscow.
Among the countries close to Russia, Turkey, which had welcomed part of the first talks in 2022, praised in recent days a “historic turning point” after the announcement of direct discussions, while China, a faithful partner of Moscow, said hoping for a “sustainable and restrictive” peace agreement.
In this diplomatic effervescence, an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the member states of NATO, long scheduled, takes place on Wednesday and Thursday in Antalya, Turkey, to discuss the increase in military spending of the countries of the Atlantic Alliance.
