Russian and Ukrainian officials join peace talks today in Turkey, their first such negotiations since Moscow’s 2022 invasion — a landmark meeting that officials were nevertheless downbeat about.
Though Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Turkey and called for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to join, Moscow ultimately sent a relatively low-level delegation, with US President Donald Trump acknowledging that little progress was expected unless he himself met with Putin.
Though Trump initially pursued a rapprochement with Moscow, he has voiced growing frustration with Putin’s apparent unwillingness to enter ceasefire negotiations.
The Russian leader’s dispatching of what Zelenskyy called a “sham level” set of negotiators “is a signal that Putin has chosen war over de-escalation,” one Russian analyst said.