Putin won't appear at potential Istanbul talks, Ukrainian lawmaker says

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, stated this, according to Espreso correspondent Kateryna Halko. 

"The intrigue is growing, we can see that. The main question is whether a meeting will take place in Istanbul between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the Kremlin dictator Putin. This is the main question, and there is no answer to it yet. But I believe that Zelenskyy has very skillfully outplayed, and I am not afraid to say this, even U.S. President Trump. When he posted on platform X that it was necessary to go to Istanbul immediately and start negotiations. So my prediction is that Putin will not show up for the negotiations. And this will mean a political defeat for him. It will show that he is absolutely not interested even in starting real peace talks. This will be a signal to the whole world, including Trump, that Putin is the main culprit, that he is not interested in peace or a ceasefire, and that sanctions should be imposed," Merezhko said.

He believes that from this moment, the ball will be in Trump's court, and the American president will have to fulfill the promise he made earlier, when he was the first to propose a comprehensive truce and a 30-day ceasefire.

"As we can see, Putin categorically rejects all of Trump's proposals, while Zelenskyy constantly and very constructively agrees to them. Now is the time to decide what to do about this and what measures to take to force Putin to do at least something," the MP explained.

He believes that Putin himself will not come to Istanbul; most likely, he will send Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov there, but there is no point for the President of Ukraine to meet with Lavrov.

"There should be a principle of reciprocity here—the president can only meet with the head of another state. Perhaps, and I do not rule this out, there will be some technical meeting between Lavrov and our foreign minister, but these will not be real negotiations," Merezhko argued.

In his opinion, Trump is the only politician who could force Putin to come to Istanbul.

"Either if he comes himself and declares that he is ready to participate in a trilateral meeting of heads of state, or, for example, by using, as he likes, 'X diplomacy': writing something like 'Vladimir, come to Istanbul immediately.' But I don't think this will happen, so my forecast is that most likely there will not be a serious start to negotiations tomorrow. The only thing I do not rule out is a technical meeting, but I even doubt that," the MP emphasized.

• On May 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be visiting Turkey. There, he will meet with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He has also stated that he is ready to meet with the dictator of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, if Putin personally comes to Istanbul.