Russian team a ‘theatre prop’, says Selensky. No, it’s not.

The head of the Russian delegation arrived in Istanbul today for the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation.

The head of the Russian delegation is Vladimir Medinski. He was already the head of the last Russian delegation talking to Ukrainians in 2022, before Ukraine terminated the peace talks in Istanbul. He was also heading the Russian delegation in the previous talks in Minsk, and on the Ukrainian-Belorussian border, all in 2022, right after the Russian invasion started. Indeed, days after Russia’s invasion started, there were already talks between the parties, which months later found an agreement but which was rejected by Ukraine in Spring 2022.

Since then, the conflict escalated and today, Ukraine may whish having not rejected the 2022 Istanbul agreement.

It is reasonable and a logical consequence that the same head of Russia’s delegation of 2022 continues talks in Istanbul, now in 2025. V Selensky’s complaints about the rank and the quality of that delegation is leading nowhere, certainly not to peace. Selensky should accept the Russian delegation’s head Medinsky who is fully in the picture and can take up the discussions interrupted in 2022.