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Donald Trump has mentioned that “nothing goes to occur” on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal till he and Vladimir Putin meet, damping down expectations for talks between Russian and Ukrainian ministers due in Turkey.
The US president’s feedback threatened to thrust the most recent peace efforts into disarray, as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had been set to fulfill for the primary time since 2022.
“Look, nothing’s going to occur till Putin and I get collectively, OK?” Trump instructed reporters on Air Drive One earlier than touchdown within the United Arab Emirates on Thursday as a part of his Center East tour. He mentioned that Putin “clearly . . . wasn’t going to go” until the US president was additionally in attendance.
Trump’s remarks had been later echoed by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who mentioned the US didn’t have “excessive expectations of what is going to occur tomorrow”.
Talking in Turkey, the place he’s attending a gathering of Nato overseas ministers, Rubio mentioned the US had hoped there could be “direct engagement” between the Russians and Ukrainians.
“That was to not be the case, or whether it is, it’s not on the ranges we had hoped it might be at,” he mentioned.
“I frankly don’t consider that we’re going to have a breakthrough right here till president Trump sits nose to nose with president Putin and determines what his intentions are,” he added.
Trump had beforehand mentioned he was open to taking a detour for the talks in Turkey, however determined to not after the Russian president made clear on the eleventh hour that he wouldn’t attend.
“I don’t consider something’s going to occur, whether or not you prefer it or not, till he and I get collectively,” Trump mentioned on Thursday. “However we’re going to should get it solved as a result of too many individuals are dying.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned {that a} ceasefire could possibly be reached if technical talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Istanbul might agree to 1. The purpose was “to aim not less than the primary steps in direction of de-escalation, the primary steps in direction of ending the struggle — particularly, a ceasefire”.
Zelenskyy, who travelled to Ankara on Thursday, had beforehand supplied to fulfill, however solely with Putin. Upon arrival in Turkey, he dismissed the Russian delegation as “stand-in props”, questioning the seniority of its members and “whether or not they could make any selections”.
The Russian president, who final week had floated the thought of resuming direct talks with the Ukrainian aspect, late on Wednesday confirmed he wouldn’t attend and as a substitute dispatched his lesser-known adviser, former tradition minister Vladimir Medinsky, together with different officers.
Russia beforehand despatched high stage diplomats together with overseas minister Sergei Lavrov to negotiations with the US in Riyadh.
Medinsky led Russia’s delegation to talks in Istanbul with Ukraine in early 2022, which made some headway earlier than breaking down in acrimony, and Moscow has been eager to current the present talks as a “restart” of these negotiations.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations arrived in Istanbul and Ankara, with no clear indication the place they might meet or what their negotiating mandate was.
Zelenskyy confirmed later within the day that his defence minister, Rustem Umerov, would lead his delegation.
He urged western allies to extend the stress on Russia, together with by making use of harsher sanctions if it continued to pull its ft on an unconditional ceasefire.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius mentioned that it appeared that Putin was “attempting to steer the American president down the backyard path” by refusing to show up in Istanbul.
“I’m fairly positive that the American president can’t be blissful about that,” Pistorius instructed a information convention in Berlin. He insisted that there was a “Plan B” if the European technique of threatening extra sanctions failed, however mentioned that “we can not publicly speak about Plan B and C earlier than it’s clear what has occurred to plan A”.
The White Home mentioned earlier this week that Trump’s particular envoy Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio and the US’s particular envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, would journey to Turkey to take part within the talks.
Extra reporting by Laura Pitel in Berlin
