"Not talks, but theater": journalist Portnikov on Istanbul negotiations

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

“It seems to me there was never going to be a trilateral meeting in Turkey — that was Zelenskyy’s idea,” the journalist said. 

“He tried to raise the stakes in the talks Putin had announced. Putin wanted to avoid coordinated sanctions from the U.S. and European countries. These sanctions were announced on May 10 in Kyiv during a summit of European leaders with Zelenskyy. As we know, Putin responded by proposing to resume the Istanbul talks on May 15.”

In his opinion, from a formal political standpoint, the talks shouldn’t have happened at all. The original plan was to have a ceasefire on May 12, not to hold talks on May 15. But Trump got involved and pushed the Ukrainians to go to Istanbul, calling it a chance for progress. Now, however, Trump denies this. He claims it was clear from the start that the talks wouldn’t lead to anything, and only a direct meeting between him and Putin could bring results.

“Zelenskyy tried to raise the stakes by saying he would go to Istanbul. Trump unexpectedly picked up on this, seeing a chance for a legitimate meeting with Putin. But as we now see, Putin had no intention of meeting either Zelenskyy or Trump. 

So when people say the world was waiting for this meeting, the truth is — it was never actually planned. Zelenskyy proposed the idea to Putin. But from the start, it was clear that Putin would never agree to meet Zelenskyy under any conditions. The only possible scenario was if Putin really wanted to meet with the U.S. president on the condition that Trump guaranteed there would be no contact with Zelenskyy.

Since, as I understand it, no such guarantees were given — and Putin himself doesn’t seem eager to meet with Trump — the story about a planned meeting between the American, Ukrainian, and Russian presidents was fake from the start. It was simply an attempt by the Ukrainian president to raise the stakes and show the U.S. president that he was being constructive. This wasn’t about real meetings, it was theater,” Portnikov concluded.

Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Istanbul

In a nighttime address on May 11, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed he was ready for direct talks with Ukraine in Turkey next week, but he dismissed the idea of a 30-day truce. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would keep working with both sides and predicted that the coming week would be “great.”

On the evening of May 14, Russia announced the composition of its delegation for talks with Ukraine in Istanbul.

Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later stated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be present during the talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey on May 15.

On May 16, a trilateral meeting of delegations from Ukraine, the United States, and Turkey took place in Istanbul. Following this, negotiations between representatives of Russia and Ukraine began, with some delay.

Later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin sent a low-level delegation to the talks in Istanbul that didn’t have the authority to make any decisions.