Russia and Ukraine exchanged heated words on Thursday as delegates prepared to hold their first face-to-face peace negotiations in more than three years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Russia for sending a “dummy” delegation upon arriving in Ankara for a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Russian officials, for their part, called Zelensky “pathetic” and a “clown”.
The exchange of personal barbs undermines the chances of any breakthrough at the talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending, despite days of international pressure.
Instead Russia’s negotiating team, which touched down in Istanbul on Thursday morning, is led by a hardline historian and Kremlin aide who has denied Ukraine’s right to exist.
“We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation and what their mandate is, if they are capable of making any decisions themselves,” Zelensky said from the tarmac at Ankara airport.
“From what we see, it looks more like a dummy,” he added.
US President Donald Trump said he was keeping open the possibility of travelling to Turkey on Friday if there was any meaningful progress.
But the absence of Putin — as well as any top diplomats such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov — would seem to diminish the talks’ importance or any possibility of a breakthrough.
Russia said the negotiations would take place in the “second half of the day”, while Zelensky said he would decide on his approach only after he meets Erdogan.
Hundreds of journalists were gathered at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, where the talks are rumoured to be taking place, AFP reporters saw.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and Russia now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
– ‘Pathetic’ –
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hit back at Zelensky’s criticism of Moscow’s delegation almost immediately.
Speaking at a briefing in Moscow, she called him a “dummy”, a “clown” and a “loser”.
Lavrov called Zelensky “pathetic” for trying to persuade Putin to turn up in person.
“At first Zelensky made some kind of statements that demanded Putin come personally. Well, a pathetic person,” he said in a televised address to diplomats in Moscow.
Trump, who has been pushing for a swift end to the three-year war, said he might go to Turkey if he saw meaningful progress.
“You know, if something happened, I’d go on Friday,” Trump said in Qatar.
Speaking at a NATO meeting in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was “impatient” and willing to consider “any mechanism” to achieve a lasting end to the war.
He is expected in Istanbul on Friday “for meetings with European counterparts to discuss the conflict in Ukraine”, according to the US State Department said.
– ‘Just’ peace –
Putin himself made the surprise call for direct negotiations after Kyiv and European leaders pressured him to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, Moscow and Kyiv’s positions remain far apart.
The Kremlin’s naming of Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Putin though not a major decision-maker, as its top negotiator suggested Moscow does not plan to make concessions.
Medinsky led failed negotiations in 2022, in which Moscow made sweeping claims to Ukrainian territory and demanded restrictions on Kyiv’s military.
He is known for writing ultra-nationalistic school textbooks that question Ukraine’s right to exist and justify the invasion.
Russia also sent a deputy foreign minister, deputy defence minister and the head of its GRU military intelligence agency.
Zelensky said Kyiv had sent a top-level delegation.
“Our delegation is at the highest level — the ministry of foreign affairs, the office of the president, the military, our intelligence agencies… in order to make any decisions that can lead to just peace,” he said in Ankara.
Russia insists the talks address what it calls the “root causes” of the conflict, including a “denazification” and demilitarisation of Ukraine.
These vague terms that Moscow has used to justify its invasion are widely rejected in Kyiv and the West.
It has also repeated that Ukraine must cede territory occupied by Russian troops and pull out of some areas still under Ukrainian control.
Kyiv wants an immediate 30-day ceasefire and says it will not recognise its territories as Russian.
But Zelensky has acknowledged that Ukraine might only get them back through diplomatic means.
AFP