The Russian side continues preparations for the talks planned to take place on Thursday. At present, we will not comment on anything else, says spokesperson Dmitrij Peskov when he at a press conference on Tuesday receives a question about Putin's plans.
Russia responded to demands from Ukraine's allies by making its own demands for direct talks with Ukraine. Then, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj raised the stakes even further by inviting Vladimir Putin to a meeting between presidents.
If Putin does not show up, it will be clear that Russia does not really want to end its invasion war, it is announced from the Ukrainian side. And Zelenskyj will not meet any other Russian representative, it is emphasized.
From Tuesday night, ten Russian drone attacks on Ukraine are reported, which is the lowest number so far this year.
Where is the limit?
USA's special envoy Steven Witkoff said last Thursday that he hopes and believes in a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyj, in an interview with the right-wing news source Breitbart, published on Monday.
The mediation has boiled down to a few key issues, according to Trump's envoy. It's about five partially occupied regions in Ukraine, about the large nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhya, and about Ukraine's access to the Dnieper River and the Black Sea.
There is a difference in where the front line goes, where the soldiers are, and the administrative lines. So we are in talks with both sides informally. We want to be straight and sit directly at the negotiating table, but we are in a conversation about what can you accept, Russia, in some of these areas. Can you withdraw behind certain administrative lines? The same with the Ukrainians, said Witkoff.
Witkoff is currently in Saudi Arabia with US President Donald Trump. If a Russian-Ukrainian presidential meeting takes place, it has been said to be possible that they make a detour to Turkey.
Sources: Rubbed plan
European leaders met Volodymyr Zelenskyj in Kyiv on Saturday and then talked about their countries being able to impose new sanctions against Russia, together with the USA, if there isn't a 30-day ceasefire.
Donald Trump went out with tough demands to both parties for a meeting. In this way, he undermined the European leaders' detailed roadmap and made it so that Volodymyr Zelenskyj had no other choice but to prepare for a meeting, say several European diplomatic sources to The Guardian.
