Photo collage – Volodimir Zelenski and Vladimir Putin / Ukrainian soldiers in a fighting position, on the front line in the Donetk region, July 2024. Photo credit: Profimedia
Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not come to Istanbul on Thursday to talk to Volodimir Zelenski about a peace agreement to put an end to the war that lasts for more than three years, as the Ukrainian counterpart had caused him after the end of the Kremlin's head suddenly proposed “direct discussion”.
Putin last met with his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenski on December 9, 2019, at a summit in Paris, in order to advance the effort to restore peace in eastern Ukraine. It happened more than two years before Russia's large -scale invasion in Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, reports News.ro citing Reuters.
Zelenski, who had taken over the presidential function in May 2019, and Putin held discussions with the President of France, Emmanual Macron, and the German Chancellor at that time, Angela Merkel, in a renewed effort to end a conflict that, at that time, had killed over 13,000 people in 2014.
In 2014, the loyal forces of the Ukrainian president Pro-Rus Viktor Yanukovici killed dozens of demonstrators in Kiev, and he finally fled to Russia, in the middle of a popular revolt. Moscow responded by sending undercover troops to conquer the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia has quickly annexed. Also, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Russian agents and pro-Russian Ukrainians have launched an armed revolt and declared two independent “folk republics”.
On December 9, 2019, after a series of bilateral meetings at the Elysee Palace, Putin and Zelenski entered the room to meet the four leaders. Putin and Zelenski had a low visual contact and did not shake their hands in front of the cameras.
Pressure is Mounting on Russian President Vladimir Putin To Meet With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Türkiye. The Last Met in 2019, Along With Firech President Emmanuel Macron and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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“We cannot run around the world in search of Putin”
Subsequently, after the large-scale aggression of Russia in Ukraine began, and Moscow proclaimed that four Ukrainian regions of the southeast, although not completely controlled them, Volodimir Zelenski issued an order that forbade Moscow as long as the Kredimir Putin is.
For his part, the Kremlin considers Zelenski illegitimate president, as his mandate expired in May 2024, but, as new in Ukraine, new elections could not be organized.
On Thursday, Putin rejected the challenge of meeting Zelenski in Turkey, sending a second -rate delegation to the planned peace discussions, while the President of Ukraine announced that his defense minister, Rustem Husrov, will lead the Kiev team.
Live suspense to the negotiations in Istanbul: little is missing and sent a delegation of the second echelon / the Ukrainian delegation will be led by the Minister of Defense / Series attacks from Moscow to Zelenski: “Penable”, “Clovn”, “missed”
These will be the first direct discussions between the parties of March 2022, but the hopes in major progress have been diminished by US President Donald Trump, who said there will be no change in the situation without a direct meeting between him and Putin. Both Trump and Putin have been saying for months that I agree to meet, but no date has been established.
Zelenski said, in turn, that Putin's decision not to participate, but to send what he called a “decorative” delegation shows that the Russian leader is not serious about the conclusion of the war, while Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to “do a show” around the discussions.
It is not yet clear when the discussions will actually start.
“We cannot run around the world in search of Putin,” Zelenski said after a meeting in Antalya with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. “I feel disrespect from Russia. Without meeting time, without agenda, without a high level delegation – this is a lack of personal respect. Compared to Erdogan, towards Trump,” Zelenski told reporters.
