It was Groundhog Day in Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace. On one side of the grand conference room sat a long row of slab-faced young Russian apparatchiks, their faces unknown to all but the most dedicated Kremlinologists. On the other, a rather more high-powered and macho group of Ukrainians, many in Nato-regulation military fatigues, filed in to waste another day of their time. During Monday’s hour-long session no substantial issues were discussed, no talking points were even touched upon, no path to peace was opened.
From the Kremlin’s point of view, the talks in Istanbul are not for seeking a peaceful compromise, but rather, as former President Dmitry Medvedev bluntly put it, to achieve Russian victory and the ‘complete extermination of the neo-Nazi’ regime in Kyiv
Despite high hopes, the Istanbul peace process seems, so far, to be stillborn. Even after weeks and months of high-level diplomacy by Donald Trump and his envoys, neither Russia nor Ukraine have shifted their hard-line positions.
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