Delegations from Russia and Ukraine have sat down for their first direct talks in three years, but hopes for a breakthrough at the meeting in Turkiye remain dim.
Officials from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States arrived in Istanbul on Friday morning for the talks, the first since shortly after Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Turkish television showed the negotiators sitting down, together with Turkish representatives, in the Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus. Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the meeting had begun.
However, optimism is low that the negotiations could produce significant progress towards a ceasefire, after Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face to face in Turkiye.
Zelenskyy said he was sending a team headed by his defence minister to Istanbul for the talks, even as he said that the Russian delegation did not include “anyone who actually makes decisions”, accusing Moscow of not making efforts to end the war.
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