How To Destroy The Kremlin's Plan

• 30.05.2025, 8:22

Russia will not hand over its memorandum in advance.

I think we should insist that the Russians hand over their memorandum before the meeting in Istanbul, not during the meeting. This is logical and reasonable: you submit proposals, we think about them for a few days, formulate our position, and then state it during the negotiations.

But I suspect that the Russian Federation will not submit its memorandum before the Istanbul meeting. The fact is that, of course, it will contain nothing new - the same maximalist demands announced at the last meeting and already rejected by Ukraine. Putin understands perfectly well that a mere repetition of the same demands will be regarded by everyone as a mockery and a demonstrative refusal to compromise.

And then no one from the Ukrainian side will go to Istanbul to discuss such a memorandum (or a minimal-level delegation will go - like a letter carrier handing over his document and picking up a Russian one).

That is, Putin's whole plan to create a smokescreen of "negotiations" to cover military escalation will be destroyed.

So Russia will not hand over its memorandum in advance. Under these circumstances, I believe Ukraine (with the support of the United States) can roll out a quite reasonable condition for the meeting: the text of the Russian document must be handed over to Kiev at least three days before the proposed date of the meeting.

Ivan Yakovina, Facebook