Trump: ‘Nothing’s going to happen’ on Ukraine peace until he meets directly with Putin
US president Donald Trump has said that nothing will happen with any prospective peace talks until he and his Russian counterpart discuss it directly.
Donald Trump was speaking abour Air Force One, Reuters reports, and told the media on the plane, just prior to landing in Dubai, that “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.”
Russia’s failure to send a top-level delegation to expected talks today in Istanbul has reduced optimism that any deal could be made quickly.
Key events
Zelenskyy: Ukraine sees Russia is not serious about talks but will send delegation headed by defence minister
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a press conference in Ankara, has said Ukraine will send a delegation to talks in Istanbul headed by its defence minister, but said that in Ukraine’s view Russia is not serious about peace talks. He says the mandate of the Ukrainian delegation is to discuss a ceasefire.
More details soon …
You will be able to watch the Volodymyr Zelenskyy Ankara press conference, which is about to start, here …
Tass is carrying a flash report which says that Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation in Turkey, has said “Russia is ready to resume the negotiation process in Istanbul and possible compromises, there is a working mood.”
It is understood by the media that he will be holding a press briefing in Istanbul within the next hour.
We are still waiting for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to start his press conference in Ankara.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to hold a press conference in Ankara. We will bring you the key lines as they emerge.
Prospect of direct Ukraine-Russia talks hangs in balance as Turkey warns there must be ‘compromise’
Ruth Michaelson
Ruth Michaelson is in Istanbul for the Guardian, and this is her latest report, summing up recent activity:
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting between Nato foreign ministers in the southern city of Antalya, told reporters that both Russia and Ukraine must “compromise,” in order to achieve peace.
“If the parties’ positions are harmonised and trust is established, a very important step towards peace will have been taken. We have enough reasons to be hopeful,” he said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that Russian president Vladimir Putin still has no plans to travel to Turkey for talks.
“There are no such plans at the current time. There is a delegation of Russian negotiators in Istanbul who are waiting for their Ukrainian counterparts who have not yet turned up,” he said.
Asked whether Putin might show up in Istanbul if US president Donald Trump chooses to, perhaps alongside US secretary of state Marco Rubio who currently in Antalya and due in Istanbul tomorrow, Peskov said: “It is premature to say what kind of participation will be required and at what level because we do not know if the Ukrainian negotiators will show up or not and how the negotiations will go.”
Trump meanwhile told reporters during a meeting with executives in Qatar that “I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there.”
The head of the Russian delegation, and aide to Putin, Vladimir Medinsky has reportedly said on his Telegram channel that he has arrived in Istanbul as is “ready for serious and professional work.”
Prior to a meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte this morning, Rubio said: “I will say this and I’ll repeat it, that there is no military solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This war is going to end not through a military solution but through a diplomatic one, and the sooner an agreement can be reached on ending this war, the less people will die and the less destruction there will be. And ultimately that’s what the president’s goal is.”
He added: “The president of the US has been abundantly clear he wants the war to end. He’s open to virtually any mechanism that gets us to a just, enduring, and lasting peace, and that’s what he wants to see. He wants to see an end to wars; he wants to keep wars from happening.”
For now all eyes in Istanbul are focused on a potential Ukrainian delegation who could show up here following Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier this afternoon.
Reuters is reporting that Ukrainian diplomatic sources said they are considering sending a team to speak with the Russian delegation in Istanbul. The Ukrainian side will be looking to see what their Russian counterparts have to say, but more importantly to see whether they are empowered by Moscow to have “a serious conversation.”
If the Russian delegation is not serious about the talks, they said, “we will have the right to conclude that this is a Russian charade, not meaningful work for peace.”
A Ukrainian diplomatic source has told the Reuters news agency that it is still being considered whether to send a delegation to speak to the Russian delegation that has arrived in Istanbul.
The source said if the Russian delegation was willing to have a “serious conversation”, the Ukrainian side might engage with the team, but if the Russian delegation failed to show any kind of serious approach towards the talks, “we will have the right to conclude that this is a Russian charade, not meaningful work for peace.”
Trump: ‘Nothing’s going to happen’ on Ukraine peace until he meets directly with Putin
US president Donald Trump has said that nothing will happen with any prospective peace talks until he and his Russian counterpart discuss it directly.
Donald Trump was speaking abour Air Force One, Reuters reports, and told the media on the plane, just prior to landing in Dubai, that “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.”
Russia’s failure to send a top-level delegation to expected talks today in Istanbul has reduced optimism that any deal could be made quickly.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made some points about the potential for Vladimir Putin to take part directly in peace talks during his daily press briefing earlier today.
Peskov said there were no plans as yet for Putin to travel, Reuters reports, quoting him saying “There are no such plans at the current time. There is a delegation of Russian negotiators in Istanbul who are waiting for their Ukrainian counterparts who have not yet turned up.”
Asked if the presence of US president Donald Trump in Turkey would make a difference, Peskov said “It is premature to say what kind of participation will be required, and at what level, because we do not know if the Ukrainian negotiators will show up or not and how the negotiations will go.”
Russia and Ukraine must “compromise” on the path toward peace, and Turkey hopes intensive discussions between the sides will achieve results, Reuters quotes the Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan as saying.
Speaking on the sidelines of an informal Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in Antalya, Fidan repeats that his country supports the peace efforts. He speaks as Russian and Ukrainian delegations are expected to begin talks in Istanbul.
Here’s a little more information from Reuters on the Estonian claims a Russian jet entered Nato airspace.
The former nation’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna says the aircraft was flying over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.
Russia, which regards sanctions as a malign attempt to crush its economy, says all its ships have free passage in the Baltic – and any attempt to stop them is dangerous.
Estonia’s navy says the unflagged Jaguar ship, which went onto a UK sanctions list last week, refused to cooperate when asked to stop and was then escorted to Russian waters. Tsahkna tells reporters:
The Russian Federation sent a fighter jet to check the situation, and this fighter jet violated Nato territory for close to one minute. [The] Russian Federation is ready to protect the ‘shadow fleet’… The situation is really serious.
Western nations say Moscow is using a “shadow fleet” of more than 100 ships to dodge sanctions Putin views as a part of a campaign to quash its global influence. Moscow sends millions of barrels of oil and fuel every day to buyers in China and India, and has warned against any attempt to violate its vessels’ freedom of movement.
The tanker was sailing in international waters between Estonia and Finland, and refused Estonian navy requests to change course, a spokesperson for the Baltic country’s defence forces tells Reuters.
A Russian SU-35 fighter jet approached the tanker and circled it, flying in international airspace except when it violated Estonian airspace briefly as it first approached the scene, the spokesperson adds.
Wrapping up his visit to Qatar, the US president Donald Trump stops by a US installation at the centre of American involvement in the Middle East to tell troops his “priority is to end conflicts, not start them”. According to the AP, he adds:
But I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners.
Trump has used his four-day visit to Gulf states to reject the “interventionism” of America’s past in the region. The installation, al-Udeid Air Base, was a major staging ground during the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It houses some 8,000 troops – down from about 10,000 at the height of those wars.
Tass is carrying a quote from Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who was accusing western European countries of not really seeking peace in Ukraine.
On the day that Russia has sent a low-level delegation to Istanbul to potentially conduct direct talks with a Ukrainian delegation, Lavrov is quoted as saying:
There is a lot of evidence that neither Berlin, nor Paris, nor Brussels, nor especially London really want any peace at all in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have described the delegation sent by Russia to Turkey as “of rather low rank and with an unclear mandate,” while 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 military intelligence agency, which has been behind some of Moscow’s most notorious covert operations in recent years.
Kostyukov has been sanctioned by the US for his alleged role in interfering in the 2016 presidential election, and by the UK for the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, which killed Dawn Sturgess.
Most recently, the GRU has been accused of orchestrating a series of sabotage operations across Europe, including arson attacks, cyber intrusions, data theft, and attempts to target undersea cables.
Ukraine says Russian delegation for talks in Turkey is ‘of rather low rank and with an unclear mandate’
Ruth Michaelson is in Istanbul for the Guardian
As Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Ankara, there is speculation in Istanbul about where the Russian delegation might be, and when they are expected to show up at the Dolmabahçe palace for talks.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said the talks have been moved to the afternoon at the request of the Turkish authorities.
A statement from Zelensky’s office said his meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will “define Ukraine’s next diplomatic steps to bring a full and unconditional ceasefire, achieve a durable peace, and ensure security.”
The Ukrainian president “is accompanied by a high-level Ukrainian delegation capable of preparing the necessary decisions,” they added. “We note that Russia has also sent a delegation to Turkey – unfortunately, of rather low rank and with an unclear mandate. Further updates on Ukraine’s steps will follow.”
Zakharova previously said that the delegation dispatched from Moscow is “ready for serious work,” despite the message that comes from sending a group composed of several deputy ministers and a presidential aide to Vladimir Putin rather than the leader himself.
Ruth Michaelson
Ruth Michaelson is at the Dolmabahçe palace in Istanbul for the Guardian. Here is some background on the building.
The Dolmabahçe palace is a grand sweeping waterfront palace on shores the European side of the Bosphorus, ringed by a series of outer buildings including one where the peace talks are expected to take place today. The Turkish authorities frequently use the outer buildings of Dolmabahçe for government business, including previous rounds of Ukrainian-Russian talks or press conferences with cabinet officials, held in a wooden-vaulted stone meeting room with opulent modern murals.
The palace has a history as a site of government business, inhabited by six Ottoman sultans and the last caliph Abdülmecid II after construction was completed in 1856. After Turkey became a republic, its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed periodically at Dolmabahçe, including residing at the palace during a period of illness until his death in 1938.
The almost 15,000-square-metre palace is the largest in Turkey, with 285 rooms and 44 halls including a grand ceremonial hall intended for the Ottoman sultans to receive other heads of state, 68 toilets and 6 Turkish baths. The cost of construction of the Dolmabahçe palace was also linked to the debts that later led to the Ottoman empire being branded “the sick man of Europe,” billed at 35 tonnes of gold worth, almost $2bn today.
