Ukraine conflict reside: Russian workforce a ‘theatre prop’, says Zelenskyy as Putin fails to attend Turkish talks | Russia
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Zelenskyy: Russian delegation that arrived in Istanbul is basically a ‘theatre prop’
Pjotr Sauer
Pjotr Sauer is in Ankara for the Guardian
In his first feedback after touchdown in Ankara, Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the Russian delegation that had arrived in Istanbul as largely a “theatre prop.”
“We’re involved with the American facet, I imagine they’ll even be current in Turkey at a excessive stage,” he stated. “As for the Russians, we’ll see. Nothing has been confirmed formally, however from what we’ve noticed, it appears extra like a theatre prop than a critical one.”
“What we do know for sure,” he added, “is who truly makes selections on the Russian facet. And we are going to act accordingly.”
The Kremlin has stated its delegation can be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Vladimir Putin who headed the one earlier spherical of direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022.
Notably, Russia just isn’t sending its two prime diplomats – Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov – each of whom have taken half in earlier high-level negotiations with US officers in Saudi Arabia.
Moscow’s determination to as soon as once more appoint Medinsky suggests the Kremlin is making an attempt to revive talks primarily based on the identical framework as in 2022 – a spherical broadly seen as fruitless as a result of Russia’s maximalist calls for, together with restrictions on Ukraine’s army and sovereignty.
“That is all only a efficiency – a simulation of peace talks,” Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who resigned over the conflict informed the Guardian.
Bondarev stated Putin proposed the talks in Turkey with the intention of convincing Trump that he was dedicated to peace, whereas persevering with the preventing on the bottom.
Key occasions
Tass is carrying a quote from Russia’s overseas minister Sergei Lavrov, who was accusing western European international locations of probably not searching for peace in Ukraine.
On the day that Russia has despatched a low-level delegation to Istanbul to doubtlessly conduct direct talks with a Ukrainian delegation, Lavrov is quoted as saying:
There’s plenty of proof that neither Berlin, nor Paris, nor Brussels, nor particularly London really need any peace in any respect in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officers have described the delegation despatched by Russia to Turkey as “of fairly low rank and with an unclear mandate,” whereas Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed it as a “theatre prop”.
Pjotr Sauer
Pjotr Sauer is in Ankara for the Guardian
One notable member of Russia’s delegation in Turkey is Igor Kostyukov, head of the GRU, Russia’s army intelligence company, which has been behind a few of Moscow’s most infamous covert operations in recent times.
Kostyukov has been sanctioned by the US for his alleged position in interfering within the 2016 presidential election, and by the UK for the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, which killed Daybreak Sturgess.
Most just lately, the GRU has been accused of orchestrating a sequence of sabotage operations throughout Europe, together with arson assaults, cyber intrusions, information theft, and makes an attempt to focus on undersea cables.
Ukraine says Russian delegation for talks in Turkey is ‘of fairly low rank and with an unclear mandate’
Ruth Michaelson is in Istanbul for the Guardian
As Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Ankara, there may be hypothesis in Istanbul about the place the Russian delegation is perhaps, and when they’re anticipated to indicate up on the Dolmabahçe palace for talks.
Russian overseas ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has stated the talks have been moved to the afternoon on the request of the Turkish authorities.
An announcement from Zelensky’s workplace stated his assembly with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will “outline Ukraine’s subsequent diplomatic steps to deliver a full and unconditional ceasefire, obtain a sturdy peace, and guarantee safety.”
The Ukrainian president “is accompanied by a high-level Ukrainian delegation able to making ready the mandatory selections,” they added. “We be aware that Russia has additionally despatched a delegation to Turkey – sadly, of fairly low rank and with an unclear mandate. Additional updates on Ukraine’s steps will observe.”
Zakharova beforehand stated that the delegation dispatched from Moscow is “prepared for critical work,” regardless of the message that comes from sending a bunch composed of a number of deputy ministers and a presidential aide to Vladimir Putin fairly than the chief himself.
Ruth Michaelson
Ruth Michaelson is on the Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul for the Guardian. Right here is a few background on the constructing.
The Dolmabahçe palace is a grand sweeping waterfront palace on shores the European facet of the Bosphorus, ringed by a sequence of outer buildings together with one the place the peace talks are anticipated to happen immediately. The Turkish authorities incessantly use the outer buildings of Dolmabahçe for presidency enterprise, together with earlier rounds of Ukrainian-Russian talks or press conferences with cupboard officers, held in a wooden-vaulted stone assembly room with opulent trendy murals.
The palace has a historical past as a website of presidency enterprise, inhabited by six Ottoman sultans and the final caliph Abdülmecid II after building was accomplished in 1856. After Turkey turned a republic, its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed periodically at Dolmabahçe, together with residing on the palace throughout a interval of sickness till his dying in 1938.
The just about 15,000-square-metre palace is the most important in Turkey, with 285 rooms and 44 halls together with a grand ceremonial corridor meant for the Ottoman sultans to obtain different heads of state, 68 bathrooms and 6 Turkish baths. The price of building of the Dolmabahçe palace was additionally linked to the money owed that later led to the Ottoman empire being branded “the sick man of Europe,” billed at 35 tonnes of gold value, virtually $2bn immediately.
No time has been set for talks between officers from Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, the place there may be presently a technical-level Russian delegation and a few US officers, a Turkish overseas ministry supply has informed Reuters
“No time has been set for a gathering but. On this respect, there isn’t any query of a postponement,” the supply stated.
Zelenskyy: Russian delegation that arrived in Istanbul is basically a ‘theatre prop’
Pjotr Sauer
Pjotr Sauer is in Ankara for the Guardian
In his first feedback after touchdown in Ankara, Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the Russian delegation that had arrived in Istanbul as largely a “theatre prop.”
“We’re involved with the American facet, I imagine they’ll even be current in Turkey at a excessive stage,” he stated. “As for the Russians, we’ll see. Nothing has been confirmed formally, however from what we’ve noticed, it appears extra like a theatre prop than a critical one.”
“What we do know for sure,” he added, “is who truly makes selections on the Russian facet. And we are going to act accordingly.”
The Kremlin has stated its delegation can be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Vladimir Putin who headed the one earlier spherical of direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022.
Notably, Russia just isn’t sending its two prime diplomats – Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov – each of whom have taken half in earlier high-level negotiations with US officers in Saudi Arabia.
Moscow’s determination to as soon as once more appoint Medinsky suggests the Kremlin is making an attempt to revive talks primarily based on the identical framework as in 2022 – a spherical broadly seen as fruitless as a result of Russia’s maximalist calls for, together with restrictions on Ukraine’s army and sovereignty.
“That is all only a efficiency – a simulation of peace talks,” Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who resigned over the conflict informed the Guardian.
Bondarev stated Putin proposed the talks in Turkey with the intention of convincing Trump that he was dedicated to peace, whereas persevering with the preventing on the bottom.
As we await a choice over whether or not there can be any direct talks going down in Istanbul later immediately, Russia’s army has introduced that it has seized two additional settlements in jap Ukraine.
Reuters reviews that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s airplane has landed at Esenboğa airport in Ankara, and is anticipated to talk with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan throughout the hour.
Pjotr Sauer
Pjotr Sauer is a overseas correspondent for the Guardian
I’m at Ankara airport, the place a small group of reporters has gathered to await the arrival of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s jet. The Ukrainian president is anticipated to fulfill with Turkish chief Recep Tayyip Erdoğan within the capital later immediately, after touring from Poland with a top-level delegation.
In the meantime in Istanbul, a Russian delegation led by ultra-conservative Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky landed early on Thursday. However the day’s occasions have been marred by confusion and uncertainty, with no clear indication of when – or even when – the primary spherical of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine will happen.
For now, Ukraine’s delegation – which incorporates defence minister Rustem Umerov and presidential chief of workers Andriy Yermak – is anticipated to stay in Ankara.
In accordance with one supply accustomed to the plans, Zelenskyy might dispatch his prime aides to Istanbul solely after concluding his assembly with Erdoğan – suggesting that any negotiations with the Russian facet would doubtless start later within the afternoon, in the event that they occur in any respect. Zelenskyy himself has indicated he won’t journey to Istanbul until Vladimir Putin additionally agrees to attend.
Reuters has a fast snap that based on the Russian overseas ministry, talks will start this afternoon in Istanbul. It’s simply approaching midday there now.
Unclear what format or when Russia-Ukraine talks might happen in Istanbul immediately
Ruth Michaelson
Ruth Michaelson is in Istanbul for the Guardian
Outdoors the Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul, there’s a giant crowd of expectant media and no signal of any negotiating groups to date.
Cameras from Turkish, Russian, and Polish information channels have their lenses educated on the grand wood door and Turkish presidential seal that mark the doorway to the palace courtyard, which runs alongside the grand Ottoman-era constructing the place talks are anticipated to be held someday immediately.
The Dolmabahçe palace has been the positioning of earlier negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv that secured a deal to permit the export of Ukrainian grain in 2022. Failed peace talks additionally happened between the Russian and Ukrainian sides within the southern Turkish metropolis of Antalya and in Istanbul that yr.
However with Russian chief Vladimir Putin not anticipated in Turkey for this spherical of negotiations a couple of potential ceasefire in Ukraine, it’s unclear what the potential consequence of immediately’s talks is perhaps, and even what talks in Istanbul might appear to be.
Putin on Sunday proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine, prompting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to state he could be ready for Putin right here in Istanbul, keen to indicate Washington he’s critical about peace. As an alternative, Zelenskyy will meet with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, amid reviews he’ll decide about sending a delegation to Istanbul following the assembly.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed reporters in Moscow final evening that Putin held a gathering to organize their delegation for the talks, together with overseas minister Sergei Lavrov, defence minister Andrey Belousov, chief of normal workers Valery Gerasimov, safety council secretary Sergei Shoigu and head of the Federal Safety Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov.
Nevertheless it’s a number of of their deputies who’ve reportedly arrived right here in Istanbul and are anticipated to indicate up on the Dolmabahçe palace immediately. A listing of delegates posted on the Kremlin web site stated the Russian delegation can be spearheaded by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, alongside deputy overseas minister Mikhail Galuzin, deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin and intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
Tass, citing Russian overseas ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, is reporting that Russia’s talks delegation has arrived in Istanbul.
UK overseas secretary, David Lammy, who’s in Turkey for casual talks with Nato overseas ministers, has spoken in regards to the proposed direct talks between Ukraine and Russia, which can happen in Istanbul immediately. PA Media quotes Lammy saying:
We include one single message to face by Ukraine and to make sure that we get a simply and lasting, enduring peace.
And the readiness for that peace is demonstrated by president Zelenskyy being right here in Turkey as effectively.
And naturally, we watched carefully as we head to those talks, noting the Russian low-level people who’re coming to signify the Russian facet.
US president Donald Trump has stated immediately that he would go to Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey on Friday “whether it is acceptable”, Reuters reviews.
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