{"id":426898,"date":"2025-05-15T18:56:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/15\/ucraina-colloqui-istanbul-zelensky-putin\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T19:55:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T17:55:05","slug":"ukraine-all-eyes-on-istanbul-but-without-putin-and-zelensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/15\/ukraine-all-eyes-on-istanbul-but-without-putin-and-zelensky\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine, all eyes on Istanbul (but without Putin and Zelensky)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Turkey<\/strong> is powerfully back in the centre of international diplomacy<\/strong>. Although Vladimir Putin<\/strong> has defected from a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>, the possibility still exists in Istanbul that the negotiating delegations of Moscow and Kyiv<\/strong> will meet for the first time since 2022, although hopes for a decisive breakthrough are slim. The Ukrainian president saw his Turkish counterpart The Ukrainian president saw his Turkish counterpart,\u00a0<\/span>Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan,<\/strong>\u00a0in Ankara, while the\u00a0<\/span>NATO allies<\/strong>\u00a0met in Antalya to discuss future increases in military spending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Could the diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war<\/strong> go through Turkey<\/strong>? That is the hope of chancelleries around the world, which have been watching with bated breath\u2014but not too many illusions\u2014since this morning (May 15), the developments unfolding\u00a0between Ankara and Istanbul<\/strong>. There, representatives of Moscow and Kyiv<\/strong> could meet as early as this evening to discuss the terms of\u00a0a\u00a0ceasefire<\/strong>,<\/span>\u00a0also with Turkish and U.S. emissaries<\/strong>, as announced a few hours ago by Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since last night, when Vladimir Putin<\/strong> dropped the offer made by the Ukrainian leader<\/a> to meet in person in the thousand-year-old city on the Bosphorus<\/strong>, it has become apparent that the\u00a0<\/span>long-awaited breakthrough in negotiations<\/strong> to end the war would not come anytime soon<\/strong>. Donald Trump<\/strong> himself, who had also assumed that he would travel to Istanbul to participate in possible talks, cancelled his visit\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>once he learned of the tsar’s absence.<\/p>\n

\"Vladimir<\/a>
Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Zelensky still showed up in Ankara<\/strong> to see his Turkish counterpart,\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/strong>. At the end of the bilateral meeting, the Ukrainian president criticised the Kremlin’s decision to send a low-level delegation (neither the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov<\/strong>, nor presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov<\/strong>, are part of it), describing it as a demonstration that “Russia does not think\u00a0it should end” the war<\/strong> it unleashed more than three years ago.<\/p>\n

“Which means that there is not enough political, economic, and other pressure<\/strong>” on Moscow, he argued, calling for “appropriate sanctions<\/strong>” if the Istanbul negotiations do not lead to an understanding for a truce in the fighting (a\u00a0move\u00a0already accomplished<\/a> by the EU). Zelensky also got something off his chest regarding the New York tycoon.“<\/em>Pressure must be put on the side that does not want to end the war,” he said, adding that from his point of view,\u00a0<\/span>Washington has “put more pressure on us than on the Russians<\/strong>,”\u00a0<\/span>without getting the desired results<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyiv and its Western allies have long been calling for a total 30-day ceasefire<\/strong> as a precondition for launching broader talks.\u00a0A position the Kremlin has so far rejected, preferring to initiate any talks\u00a0without, in the meantime, suspending bombings and attacks<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0Moscow’s willingness to consider the diplomatic option came only in the wake of the recapture by Russian troops of the oblast’ of Kursk<\/strong>\u00a0invaded by Ukrainians last August.<\/p>\n

\n

I had a good and productive meeting with President of T\u00fcrkiye @RTErdogan<\/a> in Ankara. It focused on bringing peace closer and guaranteeing security.<\/p>\n

I thank President Erdo\u011fan and all of T\u00fcrkiye for their support of our state, and for supporting all the real steps toward a full,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/dk3lPdooJE<\/a><\/p>\n

– Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) May 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At present, it is unclear what results can be expected<\/strong> from the Istanbul talks.\u00a0Presidential adviser\u00a0Andrij Yermak leads the Ukrainian delegation<\/strong><\/span>, while heading the Russian team is Vladimir Medinsky<\/strong>, an ultraconservative former minister of culture who is considered a Kremlin hawk<\/strong>. Trump commented that “nothing will happen until Putin and I meet”<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“We are ready to work and resume talks<\/strong>,” Medinsky said, claiming that his delegation “is determined to be constructive and seek solutions and common ground<\/strong>.” But, reiterating for the umpteenth time that Russia aims to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict<\/strong>,” he implied that the Federation’s maximalist positions have not changed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, the fact that a direct communication channel<\/a> between Kyiv and Moscow can be reopened is already an achievement. The first and only time<\/strong> that the two belligerents\u00a0sat\u00a0at<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0the same table was in<\/strong> March 2022<\/strong>, also in Istanbul. Back then, negotiations were derailed following the discovery of the Bucha<\/strong> massacre by the Ukrainians, but they were unlikely to lead to any agreement given the demands made by the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

\"Recep<\/a>
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan (photo: Sara Minelli via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Erdo\u011fan is trying to reposition Turkey as a key mediator<\/strong> in this very delicate diplomatic game. In addition to the talks in March three years ago, the sultan had also mediated, in July of that year, the stipulation of the so-called Black Sea Initiative<\/strong>, which allowed Ukrainian wheat and Russian fertilisers to continue to be exported to the world for 12 months.<\/p>\n

In Istanbul, moreover, two top brass\u00a0from the star-studded administration are also expected to arrive in the coming hours: Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/strong> and White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff<\/strong>. The former attended yesterday and today the NATO Ministerial in Antalya<\/strong>, in the southwest of the country.<\/p>\n

There, the foreign ministers of the 32 alliance members discussed the U.S. proposal to\u00a0<\/span>increase military spending to 5 per cent of GDP<\/strong>, an issue that will hold centre stage at the\u00a0<\/span>Hague summit<\/strong>\u00a0scheduled for June 24\u201325.<\/span>\u00a0To date, nine countries, including Italy, do not even reach the\u00a0<\/span>target of 2 per cent<\/strong>\u00a0agreed upon in 2014 (Spain is the one<\/span>\u00a0spending the least\u00a0<\/a>in proportion to its GDP).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talks between delegations from Moscow and Kiev could begin this evening in the city on the Bosporus, despite the cancellation of the high-level meeting requested by the Ukrainian president from his Russian counterpart. However, no one is overly optimistic about the outcome of the negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":426888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26042,25802,26458,25907,31241,26484,30817,26746],"class_list":["post-426898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-talks-istanbul-en","tag-negotiations-russia-ucraine-en","tag-turkey-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426898"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426905,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426898\/revisions\/426905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}