Zelenski suggests Trump to come to Turkey

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski appreciated on Tuesday that if his American counterpart Donald Trump comes to Turkey for Russian-Ukrainian negotiations such a decision could encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to these discussions, AFP reports.

« I do not know the decision of the US President, but in any case, if he confirms the participation, I think it would give an additional momentum to come, » Zelenski told a press conference in Kiev.

Donald Trump, who is a tour in the Middle East, said on Monday that he intends to perform a stop in Turkey on Thursday, if confirmed by negotiating between Ukraine and Russia and if he considered his presence.

After Ukraine’s European allies asked Russia on Saturday to accept unconditionally a fire in Ukraine for a period of 30 days, threatening new sanctions and increasing military aid for Kiev, Moscow proposed to Kiev direct negotiations to start on May 15 held there in the spring of 2022.

As a result of this proposal, and after Trump asked Ukraine and Russia on Sunday to meet ‘immediately’, without waiting for a cessation of fire, Zelenski said he would wait for Putin on Istanbul on May 15 for direct negotiations. At the press conference on Tuesday, Zelenski insisted that he would ‘do everything’ to get a meeting with Putin in Turkey.

If, in the end, Putin refuses this meeting for peace negotiations, then Western states must impose Russia ‘the most powerful’ sanctions, the Ukrainian president said. He said that on Wednesday or Thursday he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, from where he will leave for Istanbul only if he can have the meeting with Putin.

The Kremlin, who rejected the ultimatum of the Europeans, has not yet announced his decision regarding the initiative of Zelenski, respectively the composition of the Russian delegation that would participate in the proposed negotiations. « As soon as the president considers it appropriate, we will announce it, » Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Tuesday.