The new round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine after a three-year hiatus can be described as full of twists and turns.

Russia plans to hold the new round of direct talks with Ukraine on May 15 in Istanbul, Turkey. This will be their first negotiation in about three years. The international community is highly focused on the representatives attending this negotiation, the content of the negotiation, and whether it will become a turning point for the Ukraine-Russia issue.

However, it seems that the two sides have not even agreed on the time for the negotiation. Various parties sticking to their own views have left the journalists from different countries present at the scene confused. CNN reported that the morning of the 15th was "a confusing morning."

A little earlier that day, TASS cited sources reporting that the Russian-Ukrainian talks "are very likely" to be held around 10:00 local time at the Presidential Palace of Dolmabahçe in Turkey. The talks will be conducted behind closed doors and will not be open to the media.

According to reports, after receiving the message, journalists from all over the world arrived early at the negotiation site - Dolmabahçe Palace. "But even the security guards outside seemed confused about why we were here," the report said.

Just after 10 o'clock, Ukraine stated that the report claiming the negotiation would start at 10:00 local time was baseless and called it "fake news." However, the reporters standing outside the negotiation site were suddenly moved to another side of the building and blocked by barriers. "Once again, nothing happened," the report wrote.

Late that evening, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said at a press conference that the Istanbul negotiations had been postponed until the afternoon "at the initiative of Turkey." However, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source told CNN that the two sides "had not arranged a meeting yet."

Media gathered outside the "negotiation venue" CNN

In addition to the confusion over the negotiation time, there has also been conflict over the lineup of participants from both sides.

On the local time of the 14th, the Kremlin website released a message stating that the Russian delegation for the talks would include President's Assistant Melnikov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Galuzin, Chief of the General Staff Department of the Armed Forces Kostyukov, Deputy Minister of Defense Fomin, and four expert members from different departments. On May 15th, Russian presidential press secretary Peskov clearly told CNN that Russian President Putin would not attend the Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey.

Regarding this, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who had just arrived in Ankara, Turkey, questioned during an interview at the airport that the level of Russian diplomats sent to Istanbul indicated that Russia did not take this negotiation seriously.

Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine would send a high-level delegation. The members of the delegation would include representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the President's Office, the military, and all intelligence departments of Ukraine. He also said that the level of the Russian delegation indicated that Russia was "hypocritical" and did not take this negotiation seriously.

Previously, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy had repeatedly emphasized that he was only willing to negotiate directly with Putin. CNN commented in its report that Putin's absence from this negotiation made any breakthrough in the talks even more unlikely.

While the issues regarding the delegations in Istanbul continued, the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine remained active. Just hours before the negotiations were set to begin, both sides accused each other of launching drone attacks on the night of the 14th.

The Ukrainian Air Force stated in a statement that Russia launched an attack using 110 drones. The statement claimed that by the morning of the local time, 62 drones had been confirmed shot down in eastern, northern, western, and central regions of the country. Ukraine also stated that at least five civilians died and 20 were injured in Russia's shelling and other attacks in the past 24 hours.

The Russian Defense Ministry stated on the 15th that its air defense systems destroyed two Ukrainian drones in the Rostov and Belgorod regions.

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Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7504626556636168754/

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