New Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Turkey after Trump's peace pressure

New Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Turkey after Trump's peace pressure

Russian and Ukrainian delegates have started their third direct in Istanbul. This happened a few days after US President Donald Trump Moscow had set a period of 50 days to make peace, otherwise "very high tariffs" would threaten.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far not publicly recognized Trump's ultimatum, while Moscow continues to bomb Ukrainian cities with drones and rockets and his troops in east forward . The two previous discussions in Istanbul, which took place in May and June, enabled the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the transfer of the body of fallen soldiers, but little progress was made with regard to potential ceasefire.

expectations of the talks

Before the latest round of talks on Wednesday, Kremllager Dmitry Peskov tried to dampen expectations and emphasized that the negotiation positions on both sides remain "diametrically opposite". "Nobody expects a simple way. It will be a very difficult discussion," said Peskov on Wednesday. A day earlier he had said journalists that they shouldn't expect "miraculous breakthroughs".

delegations and military losses

Peskov confirmed that the Russian delegation remains unchanged compared to the previous rounds and is led by Vladimir Medinsky, a former Minister of Culture and current consultant Putin. Rustem Umerov, the previous Defense Minister of Ukraine, leads the Kiev Delegation.

Last month, the Russian losses reached a terrifying milestone: The British Ministry of Defense estimates that Putin's war has already cost Putin Russia more than 1 million losses in February 2022. This number coincides with an assessment of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a thought factory in Washington, DC, which quantified the number of losses to 950,000 and predicted that "Russia is expected to reach the 1 million loss mark in the summer of 2025".

Trump's new sanctions and Ukraine help

Despite these losses, the Russian President shows little signs of compromise regarding his maximum war goal of eliminating the sovereignty of Ukraine. In a long essay that was published months before the extensive invasion, Putin wrongly argued that Russia and Ukraine were a country; This suggests many that the war has been made to achieve the implementation of this idea.

In addition to Trump's new threat of sanctions against Russia and other countries that buy Russian oil, if no peace is achieved in 50 days, the United States has also secured a deal to deliver new weapons about European allies to Kiev. These measures are in stark contrast to the previous approaches that the US President pursued in the conflict.

Putin's reaction and Zelensky's claim

Trump's reversal came after the European Union presented a new sanction package that proposed to reduce the price cover for Russian oil exports and to introduce a comprehensive ban on transaction for Russian banks and financial institutions in third countries that help Russia bypassing existing sanctions.

It is unclear whether Trump's recent decisions will influence Moscow's approach, but his change of heart could offer urgently needed support for the military means of Ukraine and signals his increasing frustration with Putin. "My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the rockets fly at night," said Trump recently.

Before the talks, the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj repeated his demand for a direct meeting with Putin and said that only one meeting of the two leaders could end the war.