So here’s where we are. Putin suggested direct talks in Istanbul in lieu of the unconditional ceasefire that Kyiv had proposed. Zelensky called his bluff and immediately agreed, inviting Putin to meet him one-to-one, mano-a-mano, in Istanbul. Putin demurred and sent his aide Vladimir Medinsky in his place.
The Russian delegation is in Istanbul now: Medinsky, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Military Intelligence Director Igor Kostyukov, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin. Putin didn’t even send Lavrov. But Ukraine’s Presidential Office had said before that Zelensky wouldn’t meet lower-level Russian officials unless Putin showed up. So I’m not sure whether any talks are taking place at all. Zelensky called the Russian delegation a “farce.” Moscow said the meeting was a pitiful, failed clown car.
Zelensky used the occasion to go to Ankara and chat with Erdoğan. They shot a lot of nice photos of both leaders looking severe and leader-like at Erdoğan’s palace.
(“Most” of these issues? I wonder which ones RTE didn’t agree about?)
Trump had originally thought about going to the powwow, but when he heard Putin wasn’t going, he decided he wouldn’t, either. But he sent Marco Rubio, who apparently met the Ukrainian foreign minister in Antalya. Rubio and Witkoff are supposed to go to Istanbul tomorrow to participate in these talks, but it sounds like Zelensky will be in Ankara?
In other news, the ambassadors of the 27 approved a seventeenth package of sanctions against Russia—and this one does something important, at last. It targets the ghost-oil tankers they use to circumvent sanctions. France has meanwhile passed a law strengthening its protection for Ukrainian refugees, which is what normal countries do in circumstances like this.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Cosmopolitan Globalist to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
