President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Ankara, Turkey, yesterday.Credit…Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ukraine-Russia talks descended into confusion

Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived in Turkey yesterday for what would be the first peace talks in three years, but they spent much of the day in different cities, questioning whether they would even meet.

President Vladimir Putin was absent, but he sent a midlevel delegation to Istanbul. Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, went to Ankara to meet with Turkey’s president and said he would send a pared-down delegation to Istanbul, led by the defense minister.

Overshadowing it all was President Trump, who told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One in the Gulf region that “nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.”

Russian and Ukrainian officials indicated that the talks in some form were still on, but that they could be postponed until today.

Context: Behind the chaotic diplomacy is Moscow and Kyiv’s wide divergence over how to end the war. Zelensky wants an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, followed by peace negotiations. Putin, who appears confident of Russia’s upper hand on the battlefield, is refusing to stop fighting before he gets what he wants.