Turkey talks: Trump still defending Putin for no-show, is Zelenskyy losing another plot?

Even as Russian leader Vladimir Putin has yet again rebuffed the US-endorsed ceasefire proposal, President Donald Trump has continued to defend him.

After Putin did not go to Turkey to attend Ukraine-Russia direct talks, Trump dismissed the move and said Putin did not have any reason to attend talks in Turkey.

“Why would he go if I’m not going? I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go, and I said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go’,’ said Trump on Thursday.

Over the weekend, Putin had proposed direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted the offer and raised the stakes by calling for leader-level talks and repeating the call for US-endorsed 30-day ceasefire. While Zelenskyy arrived in Ankara for talks, Putin sent a delegation led by an aide. Putin also rejected the call for a ceasefire.

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Zelenskyy had also urged Trump to attend talks. Trump has still kept the possibility open.

“If something happened, I would go on Friday if it was appropriate,” said Trump.

Is Zelenskyy losing the plot?

So far, Putin has rejected all three ceasefire proposals floated by Trump and a peace plan that granted Russia some of its biggest demands. Yet Trump has continued to defend him.

While Trump had always been friendly with Putin, he has completely realigned the United States with Russia in his second term. He has undone generations of bipartisan foreign policy and abandoned Europe to join hands with Russia. Even though Trump has at times expressed frustration with Putin, he has not taken any action against him.

On the other hand, Trump has repeatedly attacked Zelenskyy and Ukraine. In what amounts to parroting Russian propaganda, he has falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia, called Zelenskyy an unelected dictator, and blamed Ukraine, previous President Joe Biden, and Nato for the war. He berated Zelenskyy on live television in White House and suspended intelligence and military aid that helped Russia retake large swathes of Kursk region.

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As Trump is now again defending Putin, despite the Russian leader defying him at every term, the question becomes whether Zelenskyy is losing the plot.

Earlier this week, it appeared that Zelenskyy had cornered Putin as the Russian leader appeared to be in a bind. If he joined talks with Zelenskyy, he would have legitimised him as a head of state and Ukraine as a nation. If he did not join, he risked losing face. But now that Trump has come to his rescue, Putin is assured about not losing face.

Ukraine-Russia talks to go ahead — with no expectations

Despite Putin being a no-show in Turkey, the Ukrainian and Russian delegation will hold talks in Istanbul on Friday, but there are no expectations.

The Russian delegation is being led by Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky and includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin. The Ukrainian delegation is led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.

Zelenskyy has said that “there is no agenda of the meeting and there is no high-level delegation". He said that this showed that “Russia’s attitude is unserious”.

On his part, Russian lead negotiator Medinsky has said that he would press Russia’s maximalist demands in the talks — Russia uses ‘root cause’ as a euphemism for such demands.

“The goal of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is —sooner or later— to achieve the establishment of a lasting peace by addressing the fundamental root causes of the conflict,” said Medinsky.

Previously, Russian leaders, including Putin, have said that the so-called root causes of the conflict can be addressed by a host of maximalist demands, such as removing Zelenskyy and his government from power in Ukraine, amending the country’s constitution, putting limits on the country’s military, blocking the country’s foreign security partnerships, and the recognition of all occupied territory.