According to what was announced, the contacts for a peace agreement were focused on the telephone conversation that the president of Turkey and his Russian counterpart had earlier.
Erdogan wants new round of contacts in Istanbul
According to reports, Tayyip Erdogan reiterated to Vladimir Putin that Turkey is willing to contribute to any diplomatic efforts to facilitate direct contact between Russia and Ukraine and to achieve a “just and lasting” peace. The Turkish president reiterated that direct contacts could be held in Istanbul, following the last meeting held in July.
Without elaborating on what exactly was discussed, the Russian side said the two leaders discussed the US proposal to end the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian delegation left Geneva
Around the same time, it was announced that the official Ukrainian delegation, which was in Geneva for talks on the peace plan, was returning to Kiev. According to what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, he expects the next steps to be decided soon.
He said: “I expect a full report tonight on the progress of the talks in Geneva and the key priorities of our partners. Based on these reports, we will determine the next steps and timeline. We will continue to coordinate with Europe and other partners around the world.”
Positive assessment of the Geneva process by the Europeans
It is noted that the above developments come in the shadow of the preparation by the American and Ukrainian negotiators of an “improved peace framework” and commitments that they plan to continue working on it to end the war.
In this context, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after first asserting that Donald Trump appeared positive for a jointly formulated peace plan, welcomed the fact that in Geneva “certain issues were clarified”, but as he emphasized “we know of course that peace in Ukraine will not come overnight”.
For his part, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk argued that any agreement should not weaken Ukraine or Europe. According to what he said: “It’s a delicate issue, because nobody wants to discourage the Americans and President Trump from having the United States on our side in this process. There is no agreement that a military drawdown, or so-called limits on the number of troops in Ukraine, is a condition for peace.”
Accordingly, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said more work needed to be done to establish a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, but progress was being made.
Starmer said the group of countries backing Ukraine, known as the alliance of the willing, would discuss that progress during a conference call on Tuesday.
“Everyone is absolutely focused on what we need to get out of this situation, and that is a just and lasting peace,” Starmer said.
