The replica of the Ukrainian President was not long in coming Volodymyr Zelensky. After opening to the possibility of a meeting, he raised his tone in the evening and turned directly to the Tsar: “Turkey awaits you on Thursday. Personally,” he said. And he added: “We expect A ceased and lasting firestarting tomorrow, to create the conditions necessary for dialogue. “Zelensky’s words came to the aftermath of the intervention of the American president Donald Trumpwho had urged Kiev to accept Moscow’s proposal: “At least so it will be understood if an agreement is possible. And if it is not, Europe and the United States will know how to move”. Moscow’s response was Tranchant: the Kremlin called the “ultimate” ultimatum “launched” “unacceptable”. Peskov defined “Unacceptable” requests Of the European leaders: “The language of the ultimatums is unacceptable for Russia, it is not suitable. We cannot speak to Russia with similar language”.
Cautious the European front. France and Germany welcome the Russian initiative as a “first step”, but remain cautious. “Putin wants to earn time,” he said Emmanuel Macron. “Parallel interviews cannot be accepted while the bombings continue,” said the French president. The German Chancellor on the same line Friedrich Merz: “Weapons must be silent before negotiations can really start.” At the end of the Italy-Greek intergovernmental summit with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Giorgia Meloni He highlighted: “We await a clear Russian response to the request of a ceased the immediate and unconditional fire, which Ukraine has accepted”. Meanwhile, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan He had telephone contacts with both Macron and Putin, confirming Ankara’s availability to host the talks “exactly from where they interrupted”: in Istanbul, on the banks of the Bosphorus, where the first mediation attempts were held in the initial months of the war.
Without too many turns of words, there would seem to be any perspective of peace between Russia and Ukraine on the horizon. The positions of the two countries remain quite distant. The opening of Zelensky also appears instrumental: the goal of the Ukrainian leader is to allocate the Tsar, turning on the spotlight on his real objectives, that is, continuing the conflict and keeping the territories occupied with weapons. In short, a written outcome is looming: Moscow and Kiev who reassur the liability of the flop of Istanbul negotiations. Also for this reason, despite the line of the “willing”, Zelensky would seem intent on going on Thursday in Istanbul for the interviews with Moscow even if Russia will not accept a ceased. A Kiev official reported it to the American newspaper Axios. On this point, the Moscow side, the spokesman for the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov intervened: “Direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are necessary to find a way to get to a respite”. The diplomat also reiterated Moscow’s position on the ceased the lasting fire before the start of negotiations: “A simplistic approach to this end is inappropriate,” he added. Words, just words.
A line also shared by Tatyana Stanovaya, Analyst of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and founder of the R.Politik Study Center. According to her, Putin’s opening is a “tactical move” inserted in a context of “general aggravation” of the conflict. “The Russian president has not changed his war goals, he is not ready to concessions, he does not intend to reduce military raids and does not want to meet Zelensky,” he underlines. The announcement of Moscow, for Stanovaya, is rather a response to the fear that the Trump administration, now engaged in an effort of mediation, may soon Lose patience and take a step back.
The message launched by Moscow to the American president is clear: “Stay where you are, we are working on it”. However, according to the analyst, the risk of an American disengagement – albeit not disastrous for Russia – would significantly complicate the normalization path of relations with Washington. Even more concrete, according to Osetinskaya, would be a possible close by the American side on global trade: If the United States came to consider Moscow an obstacle to peace, they could impose secondary duties on the countries that continue to buy Russian energy.
According to Stanovaya, until the Russian president remains in power, the goal will always be the same: to transform Ukraine into a friend’s state, under Russian influence. In this logic, the possible recovery of the interviews in Istanbul would be only a means of slowing down military supplies in Kiev, exploiting the weaknesses of the Ukrainian president and feeding internal tensions in the country. In summary: rather than looking for peace, Moscow aims to freeze the conflict to her advantage. In short, at the moment it seems difficult to hypothesize positive news in view of the duel in Turkish land …
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