Ukraine says Russia is 'the main barrier to peace', shows no signs of de-escalation on battlefield

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00:00For more on these talks in Istanbul, we can bring in a Ukrainian perspective, Francis Farrell,

00:06a journalist with the Kiev Independent. Good morning, Francis, and thanks for joining us.

00:12Vladimir Putin will not be in Istanbul. Why was Vladimir Zelensky so insistent that the Russian

00:17president be there? Well, Zelensky's move to call out Putin and say, come meet me personally,

00:27was a pretty, I would say, effective parry to Putin's attempt to basically poison the unity

00:37that Ukraine and Europe and even the US had found in demanding for a simple 30-day unconditional

00:46ceasefire. That's the first step to a lasting peace is for the fighting to stop. It's not

00:52a difficult concept to grasp, but it puts the pressure on Russia because it makes it very clear

00:59that it is Russia that is the main barrier to peace. And Putin is a little bit worried, potentially,

01:08about Trump finally waking up to that fact, which I think should have been pretty obvious by now. So

01:15that's why he came out at 1 a.m. and called for these talks. But, you know, he probably didn't plan

01:22to go to them himself. And Zelensky escalated further, stepped it up a notch. OK, we still want

01:30the ceasefire, but I'm ready to go. I'm ready to do anything. I'm ready for peace. Come meet me if you

01:36are as well. And I think, you know, from here in Ukraine, no one was expecting Putin to show up to

01:43that. He's scared of that kind of spontaneous trip. He's scared of a some kind of confrontation

01:52with Zelensky in person. But more importantly, you know, he doesn't really have to because he his

01:58position hasn't changed the whole time. Russia is demanding so much more. They're demanding a lot

02:05more Ukrainian land. And the big question here is what the U.S. will do when there's finally no way

02:11to deny the fact that it's Russia that is the barrier to peace. Now, you mentioned there that

02:17there seems to be a slight wavering in Donald Trump's position. Trump said that he would not

02:23in the end be going. Was Kiev maybe hopeful that his presence might have an influence on Putin or just

02:32simply the Russian representatives? Well, I think whether he went or not, the whole theater that's

02:40going on, this escalation of diplomacy, people are asking the question is, you know, what will be

02:47discussed at the talks? Is there really any chance for peace? But I think we see it a bit differently.

02:53We see that what this is really about is finally reaching potentially a final decision from Donald

03:02Trump about what he's going to do about a Russia that has no intention of stopping on the battlefield.

03:09Is he going to finally turn and see that if he wants quick peace, he'll need to put some kind of hard

03:16pressure on Russia in the forms of sanctions, of controls on oil price, of extra aid to Ukraine?

03:24Or will he do what he said he might do a few times already? And what Vance also said, which is,

03:32if it's not working out, despite their best efforts, they will step back and disengage. And that's,

03:38of course, what Russia wants. So this is so, you know, when when Washington says the ball is in Russia's

03:46court now, that's not really true. The ball has been in Washington's court for a long time,

03:50actually, because it's been very clear that Ukraine is ready to stop the fighting, but Russia isn't.

03:55But what is America going to do about it? Now, in the absence of both Putin and Trump,

04:01what is Ukraine expecting from these talks today? I think there's not much to be to be expected. I

04:10think from here, we're pretty, we're pretty skeptical about it. There could be a hope that

04:16there could be some potential agreement made about the return of prisoners, prisoners of war,

04:24about the return of other civilians detained by Russia. But Zelenskyy was very right in saying that

04:31Medinsky leading this delegation has absolutely no ability, no agency to make his own decisions.

04:40And he's just coming in with the Russian line, which is that we still want all of these four

04:47regions as an absolute minimum of Ukraine. And otherwise, we need to address the root causes

04:52of the conflict. This is a phrase they keep using, which they talk about denazification and

04:57demilitarization. But in reality, is just the existence of a strong, free, independent Ukraine in

05:04the first place. Now, Ukraine has repeatedly said that Moscow is not sincere about its offers of a

05:10ceasefire. And events have shown them to be right about this. What would it take for Volodymyr

05:17Zelenskyy's government to trust a Russian commitment to a ceasefire?

05:23Well, I think it starts with an agreement to a true unconditional ceasefire. And it starts with them

05:28agreeing to that for 30 days and not something clearly theatrical and symbolic like the several

05:38day Easter ceasefire and the several day victory day ceasefire, which never happened. In reality,

05:44perhaps there were a few less long range strikes, but the fighting did not die down for a second

05:50on the battlefield in either of those cases. That's not how it works. You need to agree

05:54together on a unilateral ceasefire. And then you need to monitor whether that is actually enforced

06:02on the battlefield, which is a pretty difficult thing at the moment when you have a front line

06:07that is completely saturated with drones on both sides, trying to hit everything that moves.

06:16So, you know, it starts with an agreement. And then whether that is actually enforced even on a

06:22temporary basis for 30 days is going to be another thing.

06:27Thank you very much for that, Francis Farrell, a reporter with The Cave Independent.

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