International Press Review dated 5 – 16 May 2025
- Anton Kuchuhidze
- May 15
- 5 min read
In recent weeks, the leading topic in Western media has been the peace talks between Ukraine and russia, which were scheduled to take place in Istanbul. According to The Washington Post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed his willingness to meet personally with putin in Turkey. However, moscow never confirmed the participation of the kremlin leader. Instead, russia continues its military actions on Ukrainian territory and insists on returning to the terms of the previous 2022 draft peace agreement, which Kyiv had previously rejected.
An article in The Wall Street Journal notes that Zelenskyy arrived in Ankara for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while putin declined to attend the negotiations and instead sent a lower-level delegation to Istanbul, headed by former russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky.
Despite the limited participation of the russian side, Ukraine demonstrated openness to dialogue: a Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov travelled to Istanbul. According to Zelenskyy, this was a gesture of respect for the efforts of President Trump and President Erdoğan, as well as evidence of Ukraine’s willingness to take constructive steps toward a ceasefire.
Le Monde reports that U.S. President Donald Trump expressed no surprise at putin’s refusal to come to Istanbul. He also emphasized that a breakthrough in the negotiations would only be possible through his personal meeting with the russian leader. Meanwhile, the American delegation to Istanbul will be led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Despite active diplomatic efforts, the positions of Kyiv and moscow remain fundamentally opposed. NATO and European leaders are calling for an immediate, unconditional 30-day ceasefire and are warning that, in case the negotiations fail, new tough sanctions could be imposed on russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has clearly stated that Kyiv will not agree to any territorial concessions.
In another Wall Street Journal article, the author notes that there is a growing understanding within the White House that putin is not seeking compromise - his goal is military victory and political control over Ukraine. The Kremlin is setting increasingly harsh conditions, including the demand for recognition of control over four Ukrainian regions that russia doesn’t even fully occupy.
If Washington withdraws its support for Ukraine as some of Trump’s allies are demanding historians may compare it to the failure of France and the United Kingdom in 1939, when they failed to uphold their commitments to Poland. However, unlike the events of the last century, today the U.S. does not need to send troops, it is enough to continue military aid. A refusal to provide that support risks becoming a historic disgrace and a loss of trust from future generations.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has supported President Donald Trump’s initiative for direct talks with putin and expressed readiness to meet in Turkey to discuss possible paths to peace. This is an important signal that Ukraine is committed to a peaceful resolution of the war and is ready to take constructive steps toward achieving stability. It also underscores Ukraine’s commitment to a diplomatic solution and openness to international support in this process.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey on Thursday to underscore his commitment to ending the war, as his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin stayed away, sending a junior delegation instead.
Zelensky said after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in capital Ankara that he was sending a team led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to meet with the Russians, possibly alongside U.S. and Turkish officials, with a 30-day unconditional cease-fire atop the agenda.
If this meeting takes place, either late Thursday or Friday, it would be the first such direct contact between Russian and Ukrainian governments in three years. Zelensky himself won’t attend.
A Ukrainian delegation will meet Russian negotiators in Istanbul on Thursday, May 15, for the first direct peace talks in more than three years, a senior Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). President Volodymyr Zelensky himself will not travel to Istanbul and is "currently deciding" who to send, the official told AFP.
The Russian delegation landed in Istanbul on Thursday morning, but without Vladimir Putin. The Russian president was not included on a list of Moscow's negotiating team published by the Kremlin late Wednesday, after Zelensky challenged him to come in person to the talks. Putin instead sent a lower-level team headed up by a hardline aide who oversaw the failed peace talks in March 2022 in the first weeks of Russia's invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that he was ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Istanbul. But Putin, who proposed the idea, has not confirmed his own participation. The Russian leader, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has long cast Zelensky as the illegitimate puppet of a neo-Nazi regime.
“You may have a good result out of the Thursday meeting in Turkey,” Trump said Monday at the White House. He said he would attend if his schedule permitted. Zelensky welcomed Trump, writing on social media that “all Ukrainians” wanted him there.
Volodymyr Zelensky asked President Trump to join potential peace talks in Turkey this week as the Ukrainian president continues his campaign to ratchet up pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to agree to a cease-fire.
“I supported President Trump with the idea of direct talks with Putin. I am ready to meet. I will be in Turkey,” Zelensky wrote Monday on social media. “All of us in Ukraine would like President Trump to be there with us.”
Zelensky’s post is the latest salvo in a game of diplomatic chicken that has played out over the past several days.
The ugly truth is at last dawning on the White House—or let’s hope it is—that Vladimir Putin has no interest in settling for a tie in Ukraine. The administration has spent weeks lamenting the pointlessness of the war. “Stop the killing” and “stop the bloodshed,” President Trump has said repeatedly to the combatants in press gaggles and on social media.
The phrases, coming from him, sound disingenuous. They would sound credible if Mr. Trump were a typical Western liberal who believes killing and bloodshed happen mainly when people fail to appreciate the benefits of stability and prosperity. But Mr. Trump doesn’t think that way and never has, which is why he also doesn’t offer similar laments over the bloodshed happening in Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and other places.
After the meeting, Trump suggested that Putin may not want peace after all and might just be “tapping” him along, while raising the possibility of imposing additional economic penalties on Russia. And as Russia continues to pummel Ukraine with devastating attacks, the Trump administration has suggested in recent days that Washington could soon abandon the effort to achieve a peace deal altogether.
In a sign that even members of Trump’s own party want to push the process in a new direction, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham—a key Trump ally in Congress—is garnering bipartisan support in the Senate for a bill that would impose “bone-crushing” new sanctions on Russia as well as tariffs on countries that purchase Russian oil, gas, and uranium.
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