Regardless of whether President Donald Trump will take part in peaceful Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul, special representative in Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg and a special representative of the Middle East, Stephen Whitkoff, is planned to visit Turkish Megapolis. It is reported by CNN with reference to a senior American official.
The official noted that Trump’s possible participation exerts great pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Trump’s decision to attend the negotiations largely depends on the participation of Russian President Putin,” he said.
According to the American official, now “everything is very dynamic” and no one knows how the negotiations will end on Thursday.
“regardless of whether Trump will be present at the negotiations or not, the special representative of the US President in Ukraine and Russia Kellogg and the special representative of the Middle East, the Whitkoff is planning to arrive in Istanbul for negotiations,” he concluded.
Attempts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine
Since the beginning of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in 2022, the parties made several attempts to settlement.
The first three rounds of negotiations took place in Belarus – February 28 in Gomel, and March 3 and 7 in Brest, but it was not possible to agree on key issues.
March 10, 2022, a meeting of the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ukraine took place on the fields of diphorum in Antalya, but it did not bring progress.
The meeting was more significant on March 29 in the Istanbul Palace Dolmabakhche, where the Ukrainian delegation presented the Russian side with a draft possible agreement and a list of guarantor countries. However, on May 17, Ukraine officially suspended negotiations, and on October 4, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decision on the NSDB on the impossibility of conducting a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite the diplomatic impasse, on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul, with the mediation of the UN and Turkey, an agreement was reached on the Black Sea Grain initiative.
March 18, after a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and President of the Russian Federation Putin, the Russian side supported the idea of mutual rejection of attacks on energy infrastructure, the next day the President of Zelensky agreed on similar measures.
On the night of May 11, 2025, President Putin made a statement in which he proposed to hold direct negotiations without preliminary conditions with Ukraine in Istanbul.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his readiness to organize a meeting.
Trump supported the Russian colleague’s proposal to resume direct negotiations with Ukraine, and Zelensky confirmed the participation in the negotiations appointed on May 15 in Istanbul.