Pakistan(National Times)- KYIV:\u00a0Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked US counterpart Donald Trump to help arrange a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Turkey as he accused the Russian leader was not seriously wanting to end the war. Zelensky said in Kyiv that the West should impose massive sanctions if Putin skips the meeting, emphasising that he would do \u201ceverything\u201d possible to make it happen and secure a ceasefire. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be in the US delegation at the talks in Istanbul, which \u201ccould be some pretty good results,\u201d Trump said in Riyadh as he started a four-day Middle East trip. The Kremlin has refused to say whether Putin will travel to Turkey, after he himself proposed Russia\u2013Ukraine talks in a weekend Kremlin address. \u201cThis is his war,\u201d Zelensky said, \u201ctherefore, the negotiations should be with him.\u201d Any meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials would be the first direct negotiations since the early months of Moscow\u2019s February 2022 invasion. Trump came to office in January promising a swift end to the war, but has become increasingly frustrated at what he sees as the failure of Kyiv and Moscow to compromise over the bloodshed. Trump said Monday that he was \u201cthinking\u201d about going to the talks. \u201cI do not know the US president\u2019s decision, but if he confirms his participation, I think it would give additional impetus for Putin to come,\u201d Zelensky told a press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPutin does not want the war to end, does not want a ceasefire, does not want any negotiations,\u201d Zelensky said, adding however that he \u201cwill do everything to ensure that this meeting takes place\u201d. Russian airstrikes killed two people in Ukraine\u2019s eastern region of Kharkiv, which is on the border with Russia, authorities said.m Zelensky urged the United States to hit Russia with its \u201cstrongest\u201d ever sanctions should Putin not turn up \u2014 saying a refusal would be \u201ca clear signal that they do not want and are not going to end the war\u201d. Putin\u2019s spokesman refused to say who Moscow would send to the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia would use the talks to address its key aims and the \u201croot causes\u201d of the conflict \u2014 the \u201cde-Nazification\u201d of Ukraine and the \u201cincorporation of new territories into the Russian Federation\u201d. Kyiv and the West reject those narratives, calling Russia\u2019s invasion an imperial-style land grab. Putin proposed Russia\u2013Ukraine talks after Kyiv and European countries urged Moscow to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting Monday. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine, while Moscow\u2019s army now controls around one-fifth of the country \u2014 including the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia did not explicitly respond to Ukraine and the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland calling for Moscow to agree a 30-day ceasefire, though the Kremlin blasted European \u201cultimatums\u201d in an apparent rejection. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Russia on Tuesday that it would face fresh European sanctions if there was no \u201creal progress\u201d this week towards peace in Ukraine, as he urged Putin to meet Zelensky. French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe would impose new sanctions if Moscow did not agree to the 30-day ceasefire. The European Union has already imposed 16 rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Macron, who has developed a warm working relationship with Zelensky, said that \u201cUkrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014.\u201d The EU\u2019s top diplomat Kaja Kallas questioned whether Putin had the nerve to show up. \u201cI think it\u2019s a good move if they sit down,\u201d Kallas told a democracy conference in Copenhagen. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think he dares, Putin.\u201d Zelensky said he would meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday or Thursday and was ready to meet Putin either there or in Istanbul. Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022 aimed at halting the conflict but did not strike a deal. Contact between the warring sides has been extremely limited since, mainly dedicated to humanitarian issues like prisoner-of-war exchanges and the return of killed soldiers\u2019 bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan(National Times)- KYIV:\u00a0Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked US counterpart Donald Trump to help arrange a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Turkey as he accused the Russian leader was not seriously wanting to end the war. Zelensky said in Kyiv that the West should impose massive sanctions if Putin skips the meeting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n