Russia and Ukraine hold first direct talks in 3 years in Turkey, Zelenskyy says ‘number one priority is…’

Fidan said he was happy to see that the will of the two sides had opened up a new window of opportunity for peace, adding it was critical for a ceasefire to be agreed as soon as possible, and for the foundations to be made for a meeting of the two nation’s leaders.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his “number one priority is a full, unconditional and honest ceasefire” during talks with Russia to potentially pave the way for a future peace deal.

“This must happen immediately to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy,” he said during talks between the two countries.

“And if the Russian representatives in Istanbul today cannot even agree to that, to a ceasefire … then it will be 100% clear that Putin continues to undermine diplomacy,” he added, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Who are the diplomats on table?

Moscow has notably withheld its top diplomatic heavyweights – including Putin’s chief foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, and his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov – instead dispatching a peculiar mix of officials, led by Vladimir Medinsky,  who as per a report by The Guardian is an ‘ultra-conservative former culture minister and Putin aide known for peddling nationalist propaganda’ and once claiming Russians “have an extra chromosome,” Joining him are Igor Kostyukov, the GRU intelligence chief linked to covert sabotage and election interference; Col Gen Alexander Fomin, a veteran military diplomat involved in arms deals with Russia’s non-Western allies; and Mikhail Galuzin, a literary-minded diplomat overseeing relations with post-Soviet states.

On Ukraine’s side, the delegation includes Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, ‘a reformist Crimean Tatar with close ties to Turkey’, as per The Guardian; presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, dubbed Ukraine’s “de facto vice-president” for his central wartime role; spymaster Vasyl Malyuk, who reshaped Ukraine’s intelligence operations; Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, a long-time Zelenskyy loyalist and diplomat; and newly appointed army chief Andriy Hnatov, a frontline marine officer who as per the Guardian famously refused to surrender during the 2014 Crimea crisis.