Zürcher Nachrichten - Russia, Ukraine trade insults ahead of Turkey peace talks

EUR -
AED 4.33393
AFN 82.488354
ALL 97.918876
AMD 452.494806
ANG 2.111641
AOA 1082.001379
ARS 1450.436914
AUD 1.79499
AWG 2.123886
AZN 2.002014
BAM 1.955778
BBD 2.375973
BDT 143.918348
BGN 1.956831
BHD 0.444846
BIF 3505.430057
BMD 1.179936
BND 1.49897
BOB 8.130907
BRL 6.402807
BSD 1.176786
BTN 100.813843
BWP 15.616821
BYN 3.850956
BYR 23126.754559
BZD 2.363673
CAD 1.603841
CDF 3404.116903
CHF 0.933685
CLF 0.028463
CLP 1092.255238
CNY 8.45472
CNH 8.449035
COP 4713.197181
CRC 594.493177
CUC 1.179936
CUP 31.268316
CVE 110.263734
CZK 24.656
DJF 209.547595
DKK 7.461422
DOP 69.929197
DZD 152.717371
EGP 58.232838
ERN 17.699047
ETB 162.331937
FJD 2.63798
FKP 0.866196
GBP 0.864498
GEL 3.209323
GGP 0.866196
GHS 12.17886
GIP 0.866196
GMD 84.367021
GNF 10200.796467
GTQ 9.047896
GYD 246.187174
HKD 9.262442
HNL 30.754647
HRK 7.535781
HTG 154.446918
HUF 400.25453
IDR 19144.410019
ILS 3.977583
IMP 0.866196
INR 100.956192
IQD 1541.482307
IRR 49704.82317
ISK 142.796302
JEP 0.866196
JMD 188.117841
JOD 0.836563
JPY 169.673717
KES 152.453858
KGS 103.185586
KHR 4722.905765
KMF 493.213951
KPW 1061.974182
KRW 1603.581038
KWD 0.360045
KYD 0.980689
KZT 610.242996
LAK 25360.708918
LBP 105435.589846
LKR 352.935949
LRD 235.937292
LSL 20.787961
LTL 3.484046
LVL 0.713732
LYD 6.336927
MAD 10.577979
MDL 19.774773
MGA 5179.940546
MKD 61.590145
MMK 2476.930075
MNT 4230.405249
MOP 9.514791
MRU 46.745463
MUR 52.943402
MVR 18.173458
MWK 2040.576579
MXN 22.179218
MYR 4.978148
MZN 75.468641
NAD 20.787961
NGN 1804.500216
NIO 43.299136
NOK 11.881695
NPR 161.302149
NZD 1.942778
OMR 0.453697
PAB 1.176686
PEN 4.190952
PGK 4.856903
PHP 66.422754
PKR 335.664047
PLN 4.267596
PYG 9385.892272
QAR 4.290251
RON 5.06216
RSD 117.15712
RUB 93.123296
RWF 1690.380598
SAR 4.425162
SBD 9.837041
SCR 17.039509
SDG 708.551738
SEK 11.226299
SGD 1.501782
SHP 0.927245
SLE 26.489794
SLL 24742.681861
SOS 672.492281
SRD 44.064711
STD 24422.302379
SVC 10.296882
SYP 15341.274375
SZL 20.783761
THB 38.147473
TJS 11.508468
TMT 4.141577
TND 3.425761
TOP 2.763529
TRY 47.070609
TTD 7.979908
TWD 34.070638
TZS 3103.573886
UAH 49.134636
UGX 4220.951553
USD 1.179936
UYU 46.559466
UZS 14916.82879
VES 129.171775
VND 30914.335176
VUV 140.352385
WST 3.069642
XAF 655.949471
XAG 0.032042
XAU 0.000351
XCD 3.188837
XDR 0.815791
XOF 655.949471
XPF 119.331742
YER 285.721832
ZAR 20.728669
ZMK 10620.80931
ZMW 28.273675
ZWL 379.939058
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Russia, Ukraine trade insults ahead of Turkey peace talks
Russia, Ukraine trade insults ahead of Turkey peace talks / Photo: SAUL LOEB, Maxim Shemetov - AFP/File

Russia, Ukraine trade insults ahead of Turkey peace talks

Russia and Ukraine traded insults on Thursday as negotiators were due to meet in Turkey for the first direct peace talks in more than three years.

Text size:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Russia for sending a "dummy" delegation, as he touched down in Ankara for a meeting with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Russian officials, for their part, called Zelensky "pathetic" and a "clown".

The exchange of personal barbs undermines the chances of any breakthrough at the talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending, despite days of international pressure.

Instead Russia's negotiating team, which touched down in Istanbul on Thursday morning, is led by a hardline historian and Kremlin aide who has denied Ukraine's right to exist.

"We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation and what their mandate is, if they are capable of making any decisions themselves," Zelensky said from the tarmac at Ankara airport.

"From what we see, it looks more like a dummy," he added.

US President Donald Trump said he was keeping open the possibility of travelling to Turkey on Friday if there was any meaningful progress.

But the absence of Putin -- as well as any top diplomats such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov -- would seem to diminish the talks' importance or any possibility of a breakthrough.

Russia said the negotiations would take place in the "second half of the day", while Zelensky said he would decide on his approach only after he meets Erdogan.

Hundreds of journalists were gathered at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, where the talks are rumoured to be taking place, AFP reporters saw.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and Russia now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

- 'Pathetic' -

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova hit back at Zelensky's criticism of Moscow's delegation almost immediately.

Speaking at a briefing in Moscow, she called him a "dummy", a "clown" and a "loser".

Lavrov called Zelensky "pathetic" for trying to persuade Putin to turn up in person.

"At first Zelensky made some kind of statements that demanded Putin come personally. Well, a pathetic person," he said in a televised address to diplomats in Moscow.

Trump, who has been pushing for a swift end to the three-year war, said he might go to Turkey if he saw meaningful progress.

"You know, if something happened, I'd go on Friday," Trump said in Qatar.

Speaking at a NATO meeting in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was "impatient" and willing to consider "any mechanism" to achieve a lasting end to the war.

He is expected in Istanbul on Friday "for meetings with European counterparts to discuss the conflict in Ukraine", according to the US State Department said.

- 'Just' peace -

Putin himself made the surprise call for direct negotiations after Kyiv and European leaders pressured him to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Despite the flurry of diplomacy, Moscow and Kyiv's positions remain far apart.

The Kremlin's naming of Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Putin though not a major decision-maker, as its top negotiator suggested Moscow does not plan to make concessions.

Medinsky led failed negotiations in 2022, in which Moscow made sweeping claims to Ukrainian territory and demanded restrictions on Kyiv's military.

He is known for writing ultra-nationalistic school textbooks that question Ukraine's right to exist and justify the invasion.

Russia also sent a deputy foreign minister, deputy defence minister and the head of its GRU military intelligence agency.

Zelensky said Kyiv had sent a top-level delegation.

"Our delegation is at the highest level -- the ministry of foreign affairs, the office of the president, the military, our intelligence agencies... in order to make any decisions that can lead to just peace," he said in Ankara.

Russia insists the talks address what it calls the "root causes" of the conflict, including a "denazification" and demilitarisation of Ukraine.

These vague terms that Moscow has used to justify its invasion are widely rejected in Kyiv and the West.

It has also repeated that Ukraine must cede territory occupied by Russian troops and pull out of some areas still under Ukrainian control.

Kyiv wants an immediate 30-day ceasefire and says it will not recognise its territories as Russian.

But Zelensky has acknowledged that Ukraine might only get them back through diplomatic means.

G.Kuhn--NZN