عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Insists on Face-to-Face Talks with Putin in Istanbul 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20
TT

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Insists on Face-to-Face Talks with Putin in Istanbul 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will only attend talks on Ukraine if Russia's Vladimir Putin is also there, the Ukrainian leader's top aide said on Tuesday, challenging the Kremlin to show it is genuine about seeking peace.

US President Donald Trump has offered to attend Thursday's proposed meeting in Istanbul, which has become the focus of his attempts to end the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Putin has yet to say if he will take part.

Both Russia and Ukraine have sought to show they are working towards peace after Trump prioritized ending the war, but they have yet to agree any clear path.

Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine after ignoring a Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Trump then publicly told Zelenskiy to accept.

"President Zelenskiy will not meet with any other Russian representative in Istanbul, except Putin," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Zelenskiy's trip to Türkiye showed Kyiv was ready for talks but repeated Ukraine's stance that any negotiations must come after a ceasefire.

"Our position is very principled and very strong," Yermak said during a visit to Copenhagen.

Moscow has not said if Putin will travel to Türkiye.

"We are committed to a serious search for ways of a long-term peaceful settlement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday but would not comment further on the talks.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides. Most of Europe has rallied around Kyiv providing arms and financial aid, while Russia has turned to Iran and North Korea for support.

Trump has demanded the two nations end the war, threatening to walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

TRUMP GOES TO ISTANBUL?

If Zelenskiy and Putin, who make no secret of their mutual contempt, were to meet on Thursday it would be their first face-to-face meeting since December 2019.

Trump, who is in Saudi Arabia, and later due in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week, unexpectedly offered on Monday to travel to Istanbul, which straddles the divide between Europe and Asia.

"I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we've got to get it done," Trump said before leaving for Riyadh.

"Don't underestimate Thursday in Türkiye," he added.

Following the offer, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the "way forward for a ceasefire" in Ukraine with his Ukrainian, British, French, Polish, German and EU counterparts.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, held talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

FAR APART

Reuters reported last year that Putin was open to discussing a ceasefire with Trump, but that Moscow ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Ukraine has said it is ready for talks but a ceasefire is needed first, a position supported by its European allies.

Kyiv wants robust security guarantees as part of any peace deal and rejects a Russian proposal for restrictions on the size of its military. Territorial issues could be discussed once a ceasefire is in place, it says.

Putin has repeatedly referred to a 2022 deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion but never finalized.

Under the draft agreement, a copy of which Reuters has reviewed, Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent UN Security Council members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Ukraine and its European allies have told Russia that it would have to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday or face new sanctions. The Kremlin replied, saying it would not respond to ultimatums.

France said on Monday European leaders, who met in Ukraine over the weekend, had asked the European Commission to put together new "massive" sanctions targeting Russia's oil and financial sector if Russia failed to agree a ceasefire.

Russia's forces control just under a fifth of Ukraine, including all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, told the Izvestia media outlet in remarks published on Tuesday that the talks between Moscow and Kyiv can move further than the 2022 negotiations.

"If the Ukrainian delegation shows up at these talks with a mandate to abandon any ultimatums and look for common ground, I am sure that we could move forward," he said.

Most Viewed

 
World

Danish General Says He Is Not Losing Sleep over US Plans for Greenland

FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
TT
20
TT

Danish General Says He Is Not Losing Sleep over US Plans for Greenland

FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
FILE - A view of a Greenland flag in the village of Igaliku in Greenland, Friday, July 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/ Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

The head of Denmark's Arctic command said the prospect of a US takeover of Greenland was not keeping him up at night after talks with a senior US general last week but that more must be done to deter any Russian attack on the Arctic island.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the United States might acquire Greenland, a vast semi-autonomous Danish territory on the shortest route between North America and Europe vital for the US ballistic missile warning system.

Trump has not ruled out taking the territory by force and, at a congressional hearing this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not deny that such contingency plans exist.

Such a scenario "is absolutely not on my mind," Soren Andersen, head of Denmark's Joint Arctic Command, told Reuters in an interview, days after what he said was his first meeting with the general overseeing US defense of the area.

"I sleep perfectly well at night," Anderson said. "Militarily, we work together, as we always have."

US General Gregory Guillot visited the US Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on June 19-20 for the first time since the US moved Greenland oversight to the Northern command from its European command, the Northern Command said on Tuesday.

Andersen's interview with Reuters on Wednesday were his first detailed comments to media since his talks with Guillot, which coincided with Danish military exercises on Greenland involving one of its largest military presences since the Cold War.

Russian and Chinese state vessels have appeared unexpectedly around Greenland in the past and the Trump administration has accused Denmark of failing to keep it safe from potential incursions. Both countries have denied any such plans.

Andersen said the threat level to Greenland had not increased this year. "We don't see Russian or Chinese state ships up here," he said.

DOG SLED PATROLS

Denmark's permanent presence consists of four ageing inspection vessels, a small surveillance plane, and dog sled patrols tasked with monitoring an area four times the size of France.

Previously focused on demonstrating its presence and civilian tasks like search and rescue, and fishing inspection, the Joint Arctic Command is now shifting more towards territorial defense, Andersen said.

"In reality, Greenland is not that difficult to defend," he said. "Relatively few points need defending, and of course, we have a plan for that. NATO has a plan for that."

As part of the military exercises this month, Denmark has deployed a frigate, F-16s, special forces and extra troops, and increased surveillance around critical infrastructure. They would leave next week when the exercises end, Andersen said, adding that he would like to repeat them in the coming months.

"To keep this area conflict-free, we have to do more, we need to have a credible deterrent," he said. "If Russia starts to change its behavior around Greenland, I have to be able to act on it."

In January, Denmark pledged over $2 billion to strengthen its Arctic defense, including new Arctic navy vessels, long-range drones, and satellite coverage. France offered to deploy troops to Greenland and EU's top military official said it made sense to station troops from EU countries there.

Around 20,000 people live in the capital Nuuk, with the rest of Greenland's 57,000 population spread across 71 towns, mostly on the west coast. The lack of infrastructure elsewhere is a deterrent in itself, Andersen said.

"If, for example, there were to be a Russian naval landing on the east coast, I think it wouldn't be long before such a military operation would turn into a rescue mission," he said.