Russian and Ukrainian Delegations Meet and Will Meet in Istanbul: Lavrov

Russian and Ukrainian delegations have met and will meet in Istanbul, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in an interview with NBC. He reminded that President Vladimir Putin has ordered that the negotiations be well thought out.

According to Lavrov, this requires coordination of the preparatory processes between the two parties. To this end, we have suggested elevating the level of the delegations that met and will meet in Istanbul to discuss the specific issues that need to be brought to the attention of President Putin and Ukrainian leader Zelensky, the minister said.

Lavrov also recalled that during the previous meeting in Istanbul, the Russian side proposed to create three working groups, including on political issues. He noted that over a month has passed, yet there has been no response from the Ukrainian side.

Regarding Zelensky, who considers a meeting with Putin a top priority, Lavrov is confident that he is simply playing a game. At the same time, the diplomat indicated that the politician is very skilled at this. Lavrov emphasized that Zelensky enjoys theatrics but is not interested in the substance.