Merz Says Europe Disappointed with Russia's Stance in Turkey Talks
Ukraine's European partners are disappointed that Russia did not use the opportunity to bring the end of the war closer by not presenting a delegation of the appropriate level in Istanbul, but will continue to look for ways to hold talks, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Tirana, where he, along with the presidents of Ukraine and France, the prime ministers of Poland and the United Kingdom, had a telephone conversation with the US president.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Ukrinform.
"We agree that the Russian side had a good opportunity to hold initial talks on a peace agreement with a preliminary ceasefire agreement this week. We are very disappointed that this did not happen. The ball was completely in Russia's court," Merz said.
According to him, all the conditions were met for a good first conversation to take place.
The four European leaders and the Ukrainian president agreed that they would continue to work on engaging the United States and make proposals for the start of talks in the coming days and weeks.
"We are determined to continue to help Ukraine to bring this terrible war to an end. The diplomatic efforts we have made so far have unfortunately failed due to Russia's unwillingness to take the first steps in the right direction. But we will not give up, we will continue and we will coordinate well with the Americans," the German Prime Minister said.
The summit of the European Political Community took place in Tirana on 16 May.
Presidents of Ukraine and France Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Poland Keir Starmer and Donald Tusk spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump from Tirana.
The leaders also spoke by phone with the White House last Saturday during their visit to Kyiv.
As The Gaze reported earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said that during the talks in Istanbul on Friday, the Russian side made statements unacceptable to Ukraine.