In his evening address on 31 May, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the situation regarding preparations for the next round of talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday, 2 June.
“We are now preparing for new diplomatic steps together with our partners in Europe and, very importantly, with our partners in the United States. In fact, every day we are in touch with everyone who can make diplomacy worthwhile,” the President said.
According to him, there is currently no clear information on what the Russians intend to discuss in Istanbul: “We don’t have any, Turkey doesn’t have any, the United States doesn’t have any, and neither do our other partners. And so far, it doesn’t look very serious.”
The Head of State informed that he had spoken with Turkish President Erdogan on this issue yesterday.
“Of course, everyone in the world wants diplomacy to work and a real ceasefire. Everyone wants Russia to stop playing with diplomacy and end the war. Everybody wants a serious peace, and Russia has to go for it. This should be the agenda of the meetings. We have given our agendas. We hope that the American side will be decisive on the issue of sanctions to help peace,” Zelenskyy said.