Ukraine’s Zelenskyy to send delegation for Russia talks after Putin no-show
Al Jazeera
Volodymyr Zelenskyy sends team led by defence minister for talks with Russian delegation in Turkiye’s Istanbul.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is sending a team headed by his defence minister to Istanbul for the first direct talks with a Russian delegation since the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Zelenskyy’s announcement on Thursday came after the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had no intention to meet with him in Turkiye, sending instead a junior delegation for the planned talks – a move that Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said was “like a slap in the face”.
The Ukrainian delegation will be headed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov with the aim “to attempt at least the first steps toward de-escalation, the first steps toward ending the war – namely, a ceasefire”, he said.
Russia’s team is headed by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister, who said that he viewed talks with Kyiv as a “continuation” of failed negotiations in 2022.
The terms under discussion back then, when Ukraine was still reeling from Russia’s initial invasion, would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv. They included a demand by Moscow for deep cuts to the size of Ukraine’s military.
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