Russian and Ukrainian delegations are set to hold negotiations in Istanbul on Friday, which will mark the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since 2022.
Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, will lead the Russian side, and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will head the Ukrainian delegation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been calling for Putin to travel to Istanbul, but said on Thursday that Ukraine would still participate in the lower-level talks. He made the comments in the Turkish capital of Ankara, where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Despite the rather low level of the Russian delegation, out of respect for President Trump, for the high-level Turkish delegation and President Erdogan, and wishing to attempt at least the first steps toward de-escalation and an end to the war, I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul — though not in full,” Zelensky said while in Ankara, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
According to Anadolu, there will be a series of meetings on Friday, including trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also expected to be in Istanbul and will likely attend talks between the US, Ukraine, and Turkey.
President Trump said on Thursday that while he welcomes the diplomacy, he doesn’t expect real progress until he meets with Putin. “Look, nothing is gonna happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters.
The president said he didn’t expect Putin to show up to the talks unless he was there. “He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything will happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we are gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying,” he said.
Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022. At the time, Russia’s main demand was for Ukrainian neutrality. Those efforts were discouraged by the Biden administration, and later that year, Russia declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts and added the recognition of that territory as part of Russia to its demands to end the war.
If Trump wants the end of the war, he shouldn't wait until Russia takes 100% territory of those four regions by force because by that time Russian demands would be different. At the moment Russian army is advancing much faster in Sumy and Kharkov regions than in the south. Once greater parts of Sumy and Kharkov regions are captured, certainly Russia will organize the referendums for those two regions as well. Then Chernigov and Kiev may follow.
“If Trump wants the end of the war, he shouldn’t wait until Russia takes 100% territory of those four regions by force because by that time Trump, Putin, Zelenskyy, and everyone else now alive on Earth will be long dead and nobody will remember what the hell the war was about in the first place.”
Fixed, no charge.
Delusional, Thomas. Russia is advancing and will keep doing so until its core interests are secure.
“Delusional”
Thanks for that disclaimer ahead of the content.
The USA was advancing every year in Vietnam. The US won every battle until it lost the war. The same with the French in Algeria. The British in Ireland. The Zionists in Gaza. The whites in South Africa. The Soviets and Americans in Afghanistan. The imperialists always win militarily until they give up and leave. The Ukrainian people have coalesced into a natonal resistance front that will persist until the Russians leave.
Good point, that dynamic occurs at times. It won't here though. The Ukrainian people have not coalesced, many would rather be part of Russia if they will be oppressed for speaking Russian in Ukraine. This has always been a proxy war, and the US as its main sponsor is tired of endless costs for no gain. Europe is irrelevant. Ukraine's demographics and economics are spiraling down. And militarily, slow but ongoing Russian progress. Ukraine has too few troops who are exhausted and injured. While certainly costly for Russia also, they are determined to conclude this on their terms. Their terms are pretty reasonable, Ukraine's are maximalist in these circumstances.
Russia lost the war over three years ago when the vast majority of Ukrainians united to oppose the Russian invasion. Unfortunately neither Putin nor Trump understand asymmetric wars of national resistance where the outcome is determined by hearts and minds, not force of arms or dollars and cents. The Ukrainian army could crumble and Zelensky could surrender. But that would not end the war because 800 years of resentment of Russian bullying and imperialism has galvanized Ukrainians into a nation determined to be independent of Russian imperial domination. Ironically, Putin's decision to use force to conquer Crimea in 2014 destroyed any chance of Ukraine aligning with Russia and drove Ukraine into the arms of the EU and NATO. If the Ukrainian army collapses, Russia will be an occupying power fighting and endless and hopeless guerilla war until the Russians finally leave. No deal that Putin, Trump or Zelenskyy could make could result in a lasting peace where Ukrainians accept Russian annexation of the Donbas where ethnic Russians are a minority where not all support secession and annexation. The Russians may even lose Crimea as a result of Putin's folly.
You left out Nazis in Ukraine who said Zelensky would hang from a tree if he abandoned the war.
You also left out the diaspora of Ukrainians who paid bribes or snuck out of Ukraine to avoid serving, and filtering throughout Europe.
You have a very propagandized perspective, and this is not in support of Putin but a statement about what the US has done to Ukraine.
If the Ukrainian army collapses, Russia will be an occupying power fighting and endless and hopeless guerilla war until the Russians finally leave.
Only if they try to conquer all of Ukraine. And if Russia is on the verge of losing Crimea, a much larger war will already have broken out.
Donbas is a lot like Ulster or the West Bank. It didn't matter that Ulster was 2/3 Protestant Unionists, that the British defeated the IRA, that the Irish nationalist leadership agreed to partition the country. Ireland was an organic whole created over 800 years of struggle with British imperialism. The struggle continued and resulted in the Good Friday Agreements that are leading to the eventual unification of Ireland. Likewise the West Bank remains an organic part of Palestine despite the sell out of the PLO and the PA and the occupation of the Jewish Settlements. Even if Hamas and PIJ surrender the Palestinians will find new leaders and continue the struggle just like they did when the PLO sold out.
750 years of struggle agaisnt Russian imperialism has resulted in an organic Ukrainian nation that is determined to separate from Russia. The Russians don't get it just like the British and Zionists don't get it and the Americans didn't get it in Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq. But Putin's resort to force only strengthened the Ukrainian determination to separate from Russia. Russia will never pacify any part of Ukraine except possibly Crimea. Eventually the Russians will have to leave Ukraine.
I don't even know if Zelensky understands what is driving the Ukrainian resistance. But to anyone who understands imperialism and wars of national resistance or national liberation, this is just a pattern I have seen repeated over and over again during my lifetime. It is painful that imperialists never learn the limits of their power.
The Russians have "occupied" the Ukrainian territories for centuries without "Ukrainian" guerilla wars carried out against them. Now pay attention here: The heartland of the "Ukrainian" nationalist idea is centered in the western regions of today's Ukraine. These regions have been non-Russian regions for centuries, either under Polish or Austro-Hungarian rule. They did not come under Russian control until 1939. Post WW2 the Soviets fought a low grade insurgency carried out by the Western backed UPA. The Soviets defeated them but did not eradicate them. The grandsons and granddaughters of the UPA-tistas now control today's Ukraine.
It is safe to say that most Ukrainians would like nothing better than an end to hostilities so that they may live out their lives in peace. As others have commented, millions of Ukrainians have left Ukraine since the war started (how patriotic is that?) and most have no intention or desire to return. Most Ukrainians speak Russian. Efforts by the current Ukrainian government to promote the use of the Ukrainian language have been acknowledged to be "disappointing" by the Ukrainian authorities in charge of the effort to promote the Ukrainian language. The Banderists will continue to plague Ukraine for decades yet and they will kill their fellow Ukrainians just as eagerly as they will kill Russians to effect their vision of a ethnically pure Ukraine. The joke on the Ukrainian nationalists is that the differences between Ukrainians and Russians are like those between the people of Kansas and Nebraska, slight but not significant and to outsiders non-existent.
Ukraine's situation is tragic, but also self-inflicted. It didn't have to come to this.
As if meeting in person magically changes Russian position…!
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/14/trump-envoy-reveals-nato-troop-deployment-plans-for-ukraine/
Trump envoy reveals NATO troop deployment plans for Ukraine
Paul Craig Roberts
I have been wondering if the Trump regime’s peace negotiations are sincere. The plan revealed by Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg indicates that the negotiations are not sincere. Putin, Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Shoigu, the former Minister of Defense, have all made it clear that NATO troops in Ukraine are unacceptable and could result in World War III. So why has Kellogg supported, or arranged, a joint statement by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK pledging “robust security guarantees for Ukraine,” consisting of “a coalition of air, land, and maritime reassurance forces that could help create confidence in any future peace and support the regeneration of Ukraine’s armed forces.” This is certainly not the de-militarization of Ukraine that the Kremlin requires, and protection by NATO forces is the same as being a member of NATO.
Putin has brought this upon Russia by his and his foreign minister’s continuous bleating for a negotiated settlement. For more than three years Putin has avoided a military victory. The explanation I offer is that he saw in the conflict what he thought was an opportunity to use it to reach a great power settlement, like the mutual security agreement with the West that he and his foreign minister tried to achieve during December 2021 and February 2022.
Putin’s failure to be prepared for conflict with the West in Ukraine and his withholding of military victory has produced a dangerous situation. Putin’s toleration of a never-ending conflict has widened the conflict into missile strikes deep into Russia and the recent closing of all Moscow airports as a result of drone attacks. This must raise the question among Russians of Putin’s effectiveness as a war leader. One result is that the West has so little regard for Putin that despite his dire warning the West is planning to station NATO forces in Ukraine. It would have been much better if Putin had gone about the business of winning the war instead of trying to use it to negotiate a settlement with the West. The result of Putin’s failure to fight to win is likely to be a much wider war.
https://www.rt.com/news/617483-nato-europe-troops-ukraine/
Does the Kremlin realize that the purpose of Washington’s “Ukraine peace negotiations” is to sequence Washington’s wars with Russia and China because Washington doesn’t have the ability to take them on simultaneously? Does the Kremlin realize that the negotiations are not sincere and are being used to extract Washington from the conflict and to substitute NATO in order for Washington to be able to focus on China, regarded as the strongest opponent? It is clear that Washington regards Russia and China as opponents to be defeated. Are the “peace negotiations” being used to cause wars, not end them?