ISTANBUL, June 2 (Reuters) – Russian and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to sit in Turkey’s Istanbul city on Monday for direct peace talks for the second round since 2022, but they are still far apart as to how to end the war and how the battle can step out.
President Donald Trump has called for Russia and Ukraine to create peace, but so far they have none, and the White House has repeatedly warned that the US will “leave” from the war if both sides are too stubborn to reach a peace deal.
The first round on May 16th received the exchange of the greatest prisoners of the war, but there were no signs of peace.
After speculating the world by speculating whether Ukraine would appear for the second round, President Volodymiazelensky said Defense Minister Rassmuumerov would meet with Russian officials in Istanbul.
The Russian delegation is led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky. After the first round, he summons the French general and politician Napoleon Bonaparte to insist that war and negotiations should always be held simultaneously.
On Sunday, Ukraine launched one of the war’s most ambitious attacks, targeting Russian nuclear-available long-range bombers at Siberia and other military bases, and the Kremlin launched 472 drones in Ukraine.
The idea for an in-person meeting was first proposed by President Vladimir Putin after Ukraine and European powers demanded that they agree to a ceasefire rejected by the Kremlin.
Putin said Russia will draft a memorandum of understanding with a broad outline of the peace agreement and then discuss the ceasefire.
Kiev said he was still waiting for a draft memorandum from the Russian side over the weekend.
Kremlin’s chief negotiator, Medynsky, said on Sunday that Moscow received the Ukrainian memorandum and told Russia’s RIA news agency that the Kremlin would respond to it on Monday.
According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, both Turkeys present their own documents outlining the ideas of peace conditions, but it is clear that after three years of war, Moscow and Kiev remain far apart.
Kellogg shows that the US was involved in the consultation and it was not clear to even representatives from Britain, France and Germany that the US would be represented at what level.
According to Zelenskiy’s executive order on Sunday, the Ukrainian delegation will also include the deputy foreign minister and several military and intelligence agency officials.
Last June, Putin set his opening term for the immediate end of the war. Ukraine must remove NATO ambitions and withdraw all its troops from the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions, claimed and primarily controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul will propose a roadmap to reach a permanent settlement on the Russian side, according to a copy of the documents seen by Reuters.
According to the documents, there are no restrictions on Ukraine’s military power after the peace agreement was hit. There is no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow’s military, nor is there a Ukrainian reparation.
The document also said the current location of the frontline will be the starting point for negotiations over the territory.
Russia currently controls less than a fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 square km, which is roughly the same size as Ohio.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. The US says that more than 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.
Trump called Putin “crazy” and publicly denounced Zelensky in his oval office, but the US president also said he believes peace is achievable and that if Putin were to delay, he could impose severe sanctions on Russia.
(Written by Guy Faulconbridge, Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly, Edited by Jane Merriman and Lincoln Feast.)
