Trump open, Zelenskyy ready but is Putin willing to join Turkey-proposed 3-way summit to end Ukraine war?

The White House has said that President Donald Trump is open to joining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin for a peace summit in Turkey. The response came Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he wants to host a summit of US, Ukrainian, and Russian leaders.

Erdogan said, “My desire is to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul or Ankara. Also to invite Trump to this meeting as well… We will take steps for this meeting after the latest talks.”

Even though Ukrainian and Russian delegations met on Monday for the second round for direct talks in Istanbul, no major breakthrough emerged from the talks — not that one was expected. They exchanged term sheets and agreed to exchange more prisoners of war and bodies of as many as 12,000 soldiers.

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Why Putin doesn’t want to join Zelenskyy in talks

Trump has said that no progress is going to be made in peace talks unless he sits down with Putin. Ukraine has, however, maintained that the fate of the country cannot be decided without Ukraine being at the table. Zelenskyy has asked Putin to join him in leader-level talks.

Putin has so far refused to join Zelenskyy in such direct talks.

Putin is unlikely to sit across the table from Zelenskyy in any talks as doing so would legitimise Zelenskyy as the head of a sovereign state. That would go against the basis of the Russian war on Ukraine that rejects Ukraine’s sovereignty and labels Zelenskyy and the current Ukrainian government as illegitimate.

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Even though Trump has frequently trashed Zelenskyy and Ukraine and remained friendly with Putin, it is Putin who has rejected all of his ceasefire proposals and personal pleas to not attack Ukrainian civilians. On the other hand, Ukraine has accepted all ceasefire proposals so far. Despite such defiance, Trump rewarded Putin last month by giving up his own demand for an immediate ceasefire and endorsing Putin’s position of direct talks with Ukraine.

It is an open secret that Putin has been prolonging the conflict to inflict maximum damage inside Ukraine and maximise gains on the ground so that it could have more leverage to press maximalist demands in talks.

Zelenskyy calls for punitive actions, Putin presses maximalist demands

As Putin neither accepts a ceasefire proposal nor an invitation for direct leader-level talks, Zelenskyy has called for tougher sanctions on Russia.

In the United States, a bipartisan movement has picked up pace to impose 500 per cent tariffs on Russia and its trading partners. However, considering the ties between Trump and Putin, such proposals are unlikely to be implemented.

On his part, Putin has continued to push his maximalise demands.

The Russian terms for peace, as reported by Interfax news agency, include the international legal recognition of Crimea and four other Ukrainian provinces that Russia has annexed. As Russia does not control these four provinces fully, Russia has demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from these provinces.

Among other demands, Russia has also sought Ukraine’s neutrality in the sense that it would not join Nato and limits on Ukraine’s military.