Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, UK PriMacrme Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron at the London security summit, March 2, 2025 (Justin Tallis/AFP)

EA on TVP World: Despite Trump, Ukraine and Europe Corner Putin

Tuesday’s Coverage: Will Putin Show Up in Istanbul?

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2357 GMT:

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have met in Antalya, Turkey, ahead of Thursday’s Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is proposing toughened sanctions on Moscow, was also in the conversation.

Sybiha posted:

UPDATE 2124 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has bailed out of the meeting in Istanbul with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin said that its delegation will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Putin aide who led the Russian delegation in talks with Ukraine in Turkey in March-April 2022.

After the Kremlin’s statement, a US official said Donald Trump will not go to Istanbul.

Zelensky has said he will not meet any Russian apart from Putin.

Moscow’s delegation also includes Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s military intelligence agency.

UPDATE 2105 GMT:

At least three civilians have been killed and nine injured by a Russian missile strike on Sumy city in northeast Ukraine.

Two of the wounded are in “extremely serious condition”.

The Russians hit an industrial site around 2:50 p.m., 20 minutes are air raid sirens sounded.

UPDATE 2028 GMT:

Contradicting earlier reports in Russian media, the economic daily Kommersant says Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will not attend any meeting in Istanbul on Thursday.

UPDATE 2011 GMT:

In his nightly video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said:

I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take. So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing.

He welcomed the possibility that Donald Trump may appear in Istanbul on Thursday: “That could become the strongest argument. This week really may change a lot — but only may.”

UPDATE 1240 GMT:

A Moscow court has sentenced Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the independent election monitor Golos, to five years in prison on charges of participating in the activities of an “undesirable” organization.

Melkonyants was condemned for working with the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, a coalition of election observers from 18 countries under a Montenegro-based NGO blacklisted by Russian authorities in 2021.

The judge also barred Melkonyants, who was arrested in August 2023, from “engaging in public activity” for nine years following his release.

“Don’t worry, I’m not discouraged. You shouldn’t be either,” Melkonyants told supporters in court following the verdict.

UPDATE 1153 GMT:

At least four civilians have been killed and 26 wounded by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 80 of 145 drones launched by Russia overnight, and 42 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The invaders also fired an Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile from Russian-occupied Crimea.

In Nechvolodivka in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, an 80-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman were slain. Three women, aged 88, 83, and 67, and a 69-year-old man were wounded.

There were eight other people injured, including a 90-year-old woman, across the region.

In the neighboring Donetsk region, two civilians were murdered and seven injured.

Casualties were also reported from the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Rivne regions.

UPDATE 1138 GMT:

German prosecutors have arrested three Ukrainians accused of plotting sabotage attacks on goods transports on behalf of Russia.

The suspects, detained in Germany and Switzerland, told individuals “believed to be acting on behalf of Russian state authorities” that they were ready “to commit arson and explosive attacks on goods transport in Germany”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: European leaders have promised more sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin does not attend Thursday’s direct talks in Istanbul over his 38 1/2-month invasion of Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the European Union approved its 17th sanctions package during the invasion, targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” trying to circumvent the global price cap on Moscow’s oil exports.

The bloc is blacklisting 189 tankers. Companies in countries such as Vietnam, Serbia and Turkey, assisting with the supply of goods to the Russian military, face restrictions. Dozens of Russian officials were added to almost 2,400 people and entities under visa bans and asset freezes, and other Russians are cited over cyber-attacks, human rights abuses, and sabotage in Europe.

At a press conference in Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said there will be further measures if there is no progress towards a halt of the invasion by the end of the week: “We will be looking at other areas, such as the energy sector and also the financial market.”

French President Emmanuel Macron echoed the warning while noting:

The war must cease and Ukraine must be in the best possible situation to go into negotiations.

Even the Ukrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot added on Wednesday, “We will have to go further, because these massive sanctions have not yet deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing his war of aggression against Ukraine. We must prepare to impose devastating sanctions that could suffocate the Russian economy once and for all.”

Zelensky: “This is Putin’s War”

In his nightly video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of his forthcoming journey to Turkey and the Ukraine-Europe initiative for a 30-day pause in military operations and attacks on civilians.

Every call for a long-lasting and unconditional ceasefire matters. Calls for direct negotiations at the highest level are equally important. Putin is the one who determines everything in Russia, so he is the one who has to resolve the war. This is his war. Therefore, the negotiations should be with him.

The President noted that emergency response operations were dealing with the damage from a Russian drone strike “on an energy facility, a purely civilian one” in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

“When everybody awaits Russia’s response to a ceasefire and direct negotiations, they respond with new strikes and attacks. Which is why pressure is essential,” he explained.

The Kremlin refused to make any public commitment on Putin and the meeting. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov snapped that Russia would announce its delegation when Putin “deems it necessary”.

But Russian officials indicated that Moscow might be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.

Zelensky has been clear that he will not meet with any Russian other than Putin.

“If Putin does not arrive and plays games, it is the final point that he does not want to end the war,” the President said on Tuesday.

EU foreign policy head Kaja Kallas, predicted, “I think it’s a good move if they sit down … But I don’t think he dares, Putin.”