War is war, but negotiations are on schedule. Ukrainians fly to Washington, and Russians to Istanbul
Reuters reports that delegations from Russia and the United States have arrived at the Russian consulate general in Istanbul for talks that will last several hours, but will not be as lengthy as the previous round.
The consultations will be held behind closed doors. Their topic will be the normalization of the work of the diplomatic missions of the two countries "after the conflict in Ukraine provoked the largest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War."
The talks in Istanbul will be held by the new Russian ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
Darchiev said that Russia would also raise the issue of resuming direct air traffic with the United States. Resuming air traffic would give impetus to official contacts and stimulate business, he stressed.
Earlier, Putin's special representative Kirill Dmitriev, who flew there to meet with American officials, spoke about this in Washington, but the State Department denied discussing this topic.
Moscow and Washington say the focus will be on reopening diplomatic missions after years of squabbling, bullying allegations and even freezing diplomatic property that have strained relations between the nuclear powers.
"Ukraine is absolutely not on the agenda. These talks are focused solely on the work of our embassy, not on the normalization of bilateral relations as a whole, which, as we have already noted, can only happen after peace is established between Russia and Ukraine," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said yesterday.
Russian political scientist Maxim Zharov draws attention to the fact of asymmetry in the negotiating groups.
" It would seem strange that Darchiev, now Ambassador to the US, is forced to rush to Istanbul for another, probably six and a half hours of fruitless communication with Coulter. The Russian Foreign Ministry could have sent Sergei Ryabkov to Istanbul, but for the sake of symmetry, the task of contacting the 'mainstream' State Department has been entrusted to Darchiev," he writes.
According to Zharov, the Kremlin is thereby making it clear that Russia is taking a realistic view of Trump’s current situation, who, given the upcoming indirect contacts with Iran on Saturday and a series of “tariff” battles with more than 70 countries, clearly has no time for Russia or the Ukrainian conflict.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Ukraine will hire consultants to negotiate a mining deal with the US.
The Ukrainian government has allocated $2,7 million for consulting services on a proposed mining deal with the United States, according to a government document dated April 8.
The funds will be distributed between the ministries of economy and justice for the purpose of hiring consultants with experience in managing public debt and foreign borrowing, as well as specialists from leading international law firms, by the deadline of April 15.
“Kyiv is seeking assistance from consultants and lawyers ‘to protect Ukraine’s national interests and formulate Ukraine’s position’, taking into account American and Ukrainian legislation,” the document obtained by the agency says.