Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened talks on Tuesday – the first face-to-face meeting of the two delegations in more than a fortnight – at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, urging both groups of negotiators to tragedy “. As Russia’s invasion seems to have stopped on the ground, Erdogan said each side has “reasonable concerns”, but added: “We have now entered a period where concrete results are needed.” It should be “possible to reach a solution acceptable to the international community,” he said, with further conflict “in no one’s interest.” Ukrainian media reported that the talks – with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich present – began with a “cold welcome and without a handshake”. Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the delegations were working on “the whole range of issues at stake”. From left: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu, President Recep Tayyip Erdo .an and Roman Abramovi στο at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul on Tuesday. Photo: RIA Novosti / Pool Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said the least he hoped for was an end to the country’s humanitarian catastrophe and the most was a ceasefire. “We are not trading people, land or sovereignty,” he insisted. “If we see that the mood has changed and they are ready for a serious, meaningful discussion and balanced arrangements, then things will move forward,” Kuleba said. He said that if it was a “repetition of their propaganda”, then the talks would fail again. A senior US State Department official said Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to compromise on ending the war, and Vadim Denishenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said he doubted there would be a compromise. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 killed about 20,000 people, forced more than 10 million to flee their homes – including more than 3.8 million who fled the country – and triggered an unprecedented series of financial sanctions. West in Russia. Kyiv has suggested that Moscow could be more flexible after failing in its original goal of encircling the Ukrainian capital and forcing the government to capitulate, as its forces were hampered by logistical failures, heavy losses and fierce Ukrainian resistance. “We have shattered the myth of the invincible Russian army,” said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. “We are resisting the aggression of one of the most powerful armies in the world and we have managed to make them change their goals.” Ukrainian intelligence services said Tuesday that Putin was seeking to compensate for his “weakened, disoriented” forces by trying to destroy cities through “indiscriminate artillery fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks”. Moscow said last week it was focusing on expanding pro-Russian separatist territory in the disputed Donbass region, where Zelensky had previously hinted that a compromise was possible. Erdogan addresses Russian and Ukrainian delegations ahead of talks at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. Photo: Murat Cetin Muhurdar / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL FORMAL SERVICE / AFP / Getty Images Zelensky has also repeatedly warned, however, that while Ukraine may be ready to accept some sort of neutral regime with international guarantees, its “sovereignty and territorial integrity” remains its top priority in any talks. Putin called for the “demilitarization and demilitarization” of Ukraine, as well as the imposition of a neutral regime and the recognition of Donbass and Crimea, which Moscow occupied in 2014, as no longer part of Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian forces recaptured Irpin, northwest of Kiev, from Russian troops regrouping to retake the area, Zelenskiy said late Monday. “We still have to fight, we have to endure,” he said. “We can not raise expectations” A senior U.S. defense official said Ukrainian troops had also retaken the Trostyanets, south of Sumy, to the east, adding that Russian forces remained largely in defensive positions near Kyiv and made little progress in other parts of the country. However, humanitarian conditions remain dire in many southern and eastern cities, including the besieged and heavily bombed southern port city of Mariupol, where the mayor’s office said nearly 5,000 people had been killed, including about 210 children. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said she hoped to open three humanitarian corridors on Tuesday to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, including Mariupol. Previous peace talks, both on video and in person, have failed to make progress on the ceasefire. The latest round comes amid allegations that representatives at previous informal talks in Kyiv in early March were poisoned. Abramovich and Ukrainian lawmaker and peace negotiator Rustem Umerov suffered symptoms of poisoning earlier this month, according to a source familiar with the incident. Both men, who consumed only chocolate and water, were treated for symptoms that reportedly included loss of vision and flaking of the skin. The allegations were first reported in the Wall Street Journal and by the research agency Bellingcat.
