In the end, Istanbul turned out to be the summit of great absences . After Vladimir Putin's forfeit , the other leaders also gradually decided not to participate . Volodymyr Zelensky - already in Turkey for a meeting with Erdogan - responded to Moscow's move, which chose to send the hawk Vladimir Medinsky, in turn designating Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as his representative. " It proves that Moscow is not serious, the Russians are offering a low-level delegation but, out of respect for President Trump and President Erdogan, we will be in Istanbul, " Zelensky said. Who wants to show that he is willing to take "the first steps towards de-escalation and the end of the war." The Donald, who had also kept the suspense high from the Middle East, finally cuts it short: "Nothing will happen - he declares on board Air Force One - until Putin and I meet." And the long-awaited direct Moscow-Kiev talks, the first since spring 2022, will be entrusted tomorrow to the respective delegations.
The showdown between Russia and Ukraine , on the day of the negotiating teams' landing in Turkey , was peppered with a colorful exchange of insults. After Zelensky branded Medinsky's arrival as "a farce", the tough spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called the Ukrainian leader "a clown, a failure, a person with unknown education" . What is certain is that the Kremlin, taken aback by Zelensky's move to transform Istanbul into the summit of a thousand and one negotiations , is now trying to build a smokescreen around the potential flop, for the use and consumption of Trump and the so-called global south, where it is constantly seeking consensus to show that Russia is not isolated, on the contrary. "We are ready to discuss and resume the course of negotiations, we are ready for possible compromises", Medinsky underlined, not by chance, who aims to spread a message of reasonableness. The United States and Türkiye will be the mediators in the negotiations and the goal, for Kiev, remains the creation of a 30-day "unconditional ceasefire". It's a hall of mirrors.
