Turkey to host top Russia, Ukraine diplomats in long-shot bid for peace

The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers will Thursday hold face-to-face talks in southern Turkey in the first high-level contact between Kyiv and Moscow since Russia invaded its neighbor two weeks ago.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has pushed for Turkey to play a mediation role, has expressed hope the talks can avert tragedy and even help agree on a ceasefire.

But analysts fear there are only the lowest chances of a breakthrough at the meeting in Antalya between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

Senior Ukrainian officials, including the defense minister, have held a sequence of meetings with a Russian delegation in Belarus largely devoted to humanitarian issues, but Moscow has not sent any ministers to the talks.

Lavrov and Kuleba will be joined at the meeting Thursday morning by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, with NATO member Turkey keen to maintain strong relations with both sides despite the conflict.

Kuleba confirms in a video on Facebook he was preparing to meet Lavrov on Thursday, warning that his expectations were “limited.”

He says the success of the talks would depend on “what instructions and directives Lavrov is under” from the Kremlin at the discussions.

“I am not pinning any great hopes on them but we will try and get the most out of” the talks with effective preparation, he says.