Russia and Ukraine are poised for talks in Torkie on Thursday, despite being shattered by the Kremlin late Wednesday for the first time in three years at the meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Voldimir Zelenki.
President Donald Trump had previously shown he might take part in negotiations, according to US officials.
This is what we know about the talks, what prompted them, who is expected to attend, and why negotiations are important.
Why is the meeting taking place?
Putin on Sunday proposed the idea of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Torkiye, rather than a round of indirect talks that the US and others tried to mediate between their neighbors during the war. Putin referenced an in-person meeting held in 2022 while pitching for a resumption.
“It was not Russia that destroyed the negotiations in 2022. Nevertheless, Kyiv suggests that negotiations be resumed directly without prerequisites,” Putin said on Sunday.
In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shortly afterwards, Russia and Ukraine held talks in Istanbul, the Turkish capital.
Zelensky said the talks fell apart as Russia demanded that Russia recognize the Donbas region, which spanned the Donbas region that was occupied by Russia while invading the Donbas region of Ukraine. Zelenskyy added that Russia hopes to abandon its long-range weapons in Ukraine, declare its neutrality and make constitutional amendments to significantly reduce its troops. “There were no negotiations. It was an ultimatum from the murderer,” Zelenkie said at the time.
Zelensky previously claimed that the peace agreement would require the renunciation of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, but in December last year, Zelensky said that the “hot phase” of the war could end if NATO provided security assurances to parts of Ukraine, which is now under Kiev’s control.
He added that the return of Russian-occupied land could be negotiated diplomatically later.
“The pressure that the US tried to put an end to the fighting in Ukraine has evolved over time,” Kiel Giles, a senior consulting fellow at a think tank at London-based Chatham House, told Al Jazeera. “It appears that Russia has engaged in a direct meeting in terms of the latest elements of its evolution, particularly in terms of European solidarity with Ukraine.”
Putin’s recent push to talks comes a day after Ukraine’s four major European allies gave Putin an ultimatum to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or new sanctions on the face. This ultimate came after the European leaders, France, the UK, Germany and Poland visited Kiev.
They gave Putin a deadline until May 12th. On Sunday, May 11th, Putin did not commit to a ceasefire – “We are committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their aim is to eliminate the root cause of the conflict and establish a long-term, lasting peace for a historical perspective.”
When and where are they detained?
According to Russian TASS News Agency, talks are expected to begin at local time (07:00 GMT). They are held in the closed rooms of Dolmabas Palace in Istanbul, the Turkish city of Istanbul, which spans the Asian-European border.
The palace in the Strait of Boshols was a major administrative body of the Ottoman Empire for most of the period between the mid-19th century and 1922.
What role did Trump play in this?
Four European leaders – the ancestors of Kiel in England, Emmanuel Macron in France, Friedrich Merz in Germany, and Donald Tass of Poland, said they called Trump to explain the ultimatum to Russia, suggesting he was on board.
However, after Putin called for direct consultations between Kiev and Moscow, Trump issued a statement on his true social platform, urging Ukraine to meet with Russia “quickly.”
Trump ran his campaign for the 2024 election with a promise to bring a quick end to the Ukrainian war. The Trump administration has held multiple meetings with representatives from Russia and Ukrainian in Saudi Arabia, in an attempt to mediate contracts.
Also in April, the Trump administration showed it was a step back from providing security assurances to Ukraine. Noting that the US has other priorities, including border security, the Trump administration said instead that Europe should take the lead in helping Ukraine defend itself.
But in recent weeks, Trump and his team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have expressed increasing dissatisfaction with the lack of meaningful progress in negotiations and threatened to escape from efforts to mediate peace.
Explaining his claim that Ukraine would attend a talk in Istanbul on May 15th, Trump argued:
Who is there?
“I supported President Trump with the idea of direct consultations with Putin. I have publicly expressed that I am ready to meet. I am in Torkie. I hope that the Russians do not avoid meeting,” Zelenki wrote in the X Post on Monday.
On Tuesday, Zelensky announced he was in Ankara on Thursday, where he will meet Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan. However, talks with Russia are scheduled to take place in Istanbul afterwards.
Trump said he would send envoys of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle Eastern envoy Steve Witkov and Ukraine and Russia’s Keith Kellogg to talks in Istanbul.
On Wednesday night, Russia announced its team for the conference. Vladimir Medinsky, aide Putin and former Minister of Culture, will lead the Moscow team, who has led the failed story of a previous round with Ukraine in 2022. Together with him, he will be Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostukov’s leading intelligence director.
Previous offers to attend Trump consultations were welcomed by Kiev. “We all in Ukraine would be grateful if President Trump could be with us at this meeting in Turkiye. This is the right idea. We can change a lot,” Zelensky said.
However, late Wednesday, US officials revealed that Trump would not be present.
The US President is currently in the Middle East. He spent Wednesday in Qatar after visiting Saudi Arabia a day ago. On Thursday, Trump will be in the UAE before returning to Washington.
What does Putin’s absence mean?
Zelenskyy previously said that he would only attend consultations if Putin also attended. “Putin is the one who decides everything about Russia, so he is the one who has to settle the war. This is his war. Therefore, negotiations should be with him,” Zelenki said in a post in X on Tuesday.
With President Putin not in position to attend, it is unclear whether Zelensky will personally attend the talks or if he will leave it to the team to participate in negotiations.
But in many respects, Zelenskyy won Putin by throwing a Gauntlet and asking him to attend.
“Zelenskyy presented a challenge to Russia to show that it is genuinely of interest. It’s up to Russia to meet this challenge or not,” Giles said.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva had also pledged to urge Putin to attend consultations.
What is there at the table?
It is difficult to predict what could be particularly discussed in Turkiye Talks.
“As both acceptable outcomes are still far apart, we’ll be in a hurry to predict whether there’s a meaningful debate,” Giles said. “Russia wants to neutralize Ukraine as an independent, sovereign state, but Ukraine wants to survive.”
At this point, Ukraine is proposing an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, but Russia claims that a series of requests will be accepted before joining such a ceasefire. Moscow wanted assurances on a ceasefire surveillance mechanism, saying that the truce would not be used by Ukraine to run out and mobilize more soldiers. Instead, Putin recently announced a brief, unilateral ceasefire that Ukraine said Moscow had never actually complied with.
“We do not rule out that during these negotiations it is possible to agree to some new trance, new ceasefires and real ceasefires observed not only by the Russians but also by the Ukrainian side. [It] Putin said Sunday.
How important are these lectures?
Giles said if talks arise, “they’ll be a big step forward.”
He added: [ so far] It explains two parallel arguments that the US had with Russia and Ukraine.
On March 19, the US, Ukraine and Russia announced a 30-day ceasefire on attacks on Russia and Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and on March 25, agreeing to a deal in the Black Sea, halting the military use of commercial vessels and the use of force in the Black Sea. However, both parties have traded accusations of breaching the terms of these contracts, which are now expired.
Source link
