US President Donald Trump unexpectedly offered on Monday, the 12th of April, to join potential Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey scheduled for Thursday, while US and European diplomats were actively communicating for several hours after the announcement. The offer to join the talks came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would travel to Turkey to meet President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters.
Trump told reporters at the White House that the talks in Istanbul could be useful and that he could join them on Thursday while in the region.
“I have so many meetings, but I think I could fly there. I think there is a possibility,” he said before leaving for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. “Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey,” Trump said.
Later in his nightly video address, the Ukrainian President said that Russian attacks on the front lines had continued throughout the day and Moscow had still not responded on whether Putin would be in Turkey for talks.
“RUSSIAN SHELLING AND ATTACKS CONTINUE,” SAID ZELENSKYY. “MOSCOW HAS REMAINED SILENT ALL DAY ON THE PROPOSAL FOR A DIRECT MEETING. A VERY STRANGE SILENCE.”
Zelenskyy and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed direct talks which, according to Zelenskyy, “could help end the war”. Erdogan described the proposed meeting as a new opportunity not to be wasted.
Following Trump’s announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed “the way forward for a ceasefire” in Ukraine with European counterparts, including the foreign ministers of the UK and France and the EU foreign policy chief, as well as with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his counterparts from Germany and Poland, the State Department said on Monday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan late on Monday to discuss Moscow’s direct talks with Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
But the ministry’s brief statement gave no indication whether Putin would accept Zelenskyy’s offer to meet him and Moscow has not yet commented on Trump’s offer to join the talks.
“We are determined to seriously look for ways to reach a long-term peaceful solution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
Before reporters could ask further questions about the proposed talks, Peskov said: “That’s it. I have said everything I could.”
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said in comments published on Tuesday by the Izvestia that talks between Moscow and Kyiv could move beyond 2022.
“If the Ukrainian delegation comes to these talks with a mandate to abandon any ultimatums and seek common ground, I am convinced that we could move even further than before,” Kosachev was quoted as saying.
Under the draft agreement, a copy of which has been seen by Reuters, Ukraine would have to agree to permanent neutrality in exchange for international security guarantees.
Ceasefire initiative “ignored”
The leaders of the four European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday. Putin, implicitly rejecting this offer, instead proposed direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, which he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.
Ukraine and its European allies have been trying to pressure Moscow to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and the German government said on Monday that Europe would start preparing new sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin does not respect the ceasefire by the end of the day.
The Ukrainian armed forces said that by 22.00 on Monday, 133 battles with Russian forces had taken place on the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire was due to start, and that the Russians had attacked with more than 100 drones during the night offensive. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha said that Russia was “completely ignoring” the ceasefire initiative.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the 30-day ceasefire was initiated by European countries “to give Kyiv a breathing space to rebuild its military capacity and continue the confrontation with Russia”.
However, it is unclear how much impact fresh European sanctions will have on Russia, especially if the US does not join in.