ISTAMBUL, May 16 (Reuters) – Negotiators from Russia and Ukrainian were in Istanbul on Friday as they were billed as the first direct peace talks in over three years under pressure from President Donald Trump to end Europe’s most deadly conflict since World War II.
The expected encounter at the Dolmabath Palace in Boshols will be a sign of diplomatic progress on the fighting sides who have not met face-to-face since March 2022, the month after the Russian invasion.
Hopes for an already low major breakthrough were even more dented when Trump said on Thursday that he would not have made any move without his encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said he will return to Washington after finishing his Middle East tour and meet the Russian leader on Friday “as soon as we can set it up.”
In Istanbul, Reuters reporters saw the first vehicles arriving at the talks venue, which includes white minibuses and several black cars.
Putin proposed a direct meeting with Ukraine in Turkey on Sunday, but spurred the challenge from Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelenki, sending a team of middle-class officials in consultation instead.
Zelensky said the decision to send what is called a “decorative” lineup rather than Putin attended, showing that Russian leaders were not serious about ending the war. Russia accused Ukraine of “trying to appear on the show” around the talk.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also flew to Istanbul on Friday, told reporters the night before that there was unlikely a major breakthrough based on the level of the negotiation team.
“I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m 100% wrong. I hope I say tomorrow they agreed to a ceasefire. They agreed to enter into serious negotiations. But honestly, I’m just giving you my rating.”
Russia says it sees the talks as a continuation of negotiations held in Istanbul in the early week of the war in 2022.
However, the conditions under discussion will then be at a very disadvantage for Kiev when Ukraine was still shaking from the first Russian invasion. They included Moscow’s demand for a massive reduction in the size of the Ukrainian army.
With the Russian army now ruled Ukraine’s closest to fifth, Putin is rapidly holding to his long-standing demands that Kiev give up his territory, abandon his NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral nation.
Ukraine rejects these terms as equivalent to surrender, seeking future security guarantees from the world’s great powers, particularly the United States.
(Reports by Can Sezer, Humeyra Pamuk, Tom Balmforth, Vladimir Soldatkin, Kyiv’s Olena Harmash, Ankara’s Ece Toksabay, Mark Trevelyaniting’s Reuters Reporters))
