Putin leaves the meeting with Zelensky in Istanbul hanging and says he doesn't accept "ultimatums."

MoscowVolodymyr Zelensky's proposal to meet face-to-face with Vladimir Putin this Thursday in Istanbul has caught the Russian president off guard. The Kremlin declined to respond to the Ukrainian leader's invitation, which he had rejected on Sunday evening. His counterpart's offer to hold direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey, raising the stakes and asking him "not to look for excuses" for not sitting down with him.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who spoke to the press later than usual, dodged the journalists' question and simply stated that they are determined to "seriously seek ways to achieve a long-term agreement in Ukraine." Nothing more. In this way, Putin buys time while he looks for a way to decline the offer without Donald Trump being able to accuse him of resisting peace negotiations.

For his part, the US president has suggested that he could attend the Istanbul meeting between his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts if he believes an agreement can be reached. "I would fly [to Istanbul] if I thought it might be useful," Trump said, insisting that he was the architect of the meeting: "They couldn't agree to a meeting because one said ceasefire, the other said no to ceasefire [...]. It's scheduled. Go to the meeting on Thursday."

The Kremlin is stalling.

A clue as to where the Kremlin's arguments for rejecting a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky may lie has been given by the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Senate, Konstantin Kosachev, who, speaking to Russia 24, argued that meetings between heads of state are not organized in haste, especially in such a complicated situation. "An unprepared meeting is worse than no meeting at all," he explained.

In September 2022, when Russia annexed the four occupied Ukrainian provinces, the Ukrainian president issued a decree preventing negotiations with Putin. The aim was to prevent backroom talks with Russian representatives that could undermine Ukraine's position. However, Zelensky believes that this decree does not affect him personally and that he is free to meet with Kremlin representatives, including the president, if he deems it appropriate.

Another narrative Moscow had used to veto contacts with the Ukrainian leader was his illegitimacy. An argument that self-servingly ignores the fact that elections cannot be called under martial law. Putin even suggested removing Zelensky and installing an internationally supervised interim government in his place. But this annoyed Donald Trump, who began to sense that Russia might not be interested in a peace agreement.

Putin's proposal to organize the first direct talks between the two sides since March 2022 is his latest escape route to avoid being held responsible by the US president for the failure of the negotiations and, at the same time, avoid having to commit to a 30-day ceasefire.

An "unacceptable" ultimatum

But refusing a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky after Trump forced the Ukrainian president to accept the meeting between the two countries in Istanbul could be the final proof for the White House that Putin is unwilling to reach an agreement. This Sunday, the US president assured that he would "proceed accordingly," along with European countries, if it was seen in Turkey that the Kremlin was delaying a possible pact.

According to Bloomberg, Trump promised European leaders that he would be open to imposing sanctions against Russia if necessary. This Monday, the German government threatened Putin with preparing a new package if he did not join the 30-day ceasefire brokered by Kiev with the support of Western allies by midnight. The Kremlin has already responded by rejecting the pressure and asserting that "the language of ultimatums is unacceptable to Russia."

The euphoria of the pro-government press following Putin's dramatic proposal for direct talks contrasts with the silence of commentators now that the ball is back in Russia's court. "It will soon become clear who is the hawk and who is the peacemaker," wrote war correspondent Dmitri Stexin in the Komsomolskaya Pravda, while Oleg Karpovitx, vice-rector of the Diplomatic Academy, assured News: "Putin has made another move like a chess grandmaster and exposed the Kiev regime and its backers."

In any case, most experts agree that, behind the efforts to show maximum willingness to reach an agreement, real progress is minimal. The two countries' positions remain very far apart: Putin has shown no sign of renouncing his demands for maximums, and Zelensky has not shown any readiness to accept any territorial losses. Therefore, it is best not to expect anything positive from the talks in Istanbul.