Russian negotiators will wait for their Ukrainian counterparts in Istanbul, Turkey, starting on Friday, May 16 for peace discussions, said the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinski.
“Tomorrow morning, from 10 in the morning, we will wait for the Ukrainian part, which should reach the meeting. We are ready to work,” said the Russian manager, the words informed by the Russian news agency Tassel.
These would be the first discussions of direct peace between Moscow and kyiv since March 2022, at the beginning of the great large -scale invasion of Ukraine that made at least tens of thousands of deaths.
The Ukrainian negotiators “will have a mandate for a high fire” and will be directed by the Minister of Defense, Roustem Oumerov, said Volodymyr Zelensky, who will not be present. Despite the request of his Ukrainian counterpart and the importance of this meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin “has not planned to go to Türkiye, said his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.
“Pure facade”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, accused Moscow to not take “these conversations, in which the United States has also been skeptical. The Ukrainian leader also described as” pure facade “, the Russian delegation led by a second plan official.
The scathing answer did not last long in María Zakharova, the spokesman for Russian diplomacy: “Who uses the expression of ‘pure facade’? A clown? A failure?”
This diplomatic ballet takes place in a context where Ukrainians and Russians continue to show requirements that are difficult to reconcile. And this at a time when the Russian army continues to progress in the Front in Ukraine, despite its losses, which still occupies almost 20% of the Ukrainian territory. In this regard, the conquest of two new locations in the East of Donetsk region was stated on Thursday.
Source: BFM TV
