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U.S. says Istanbul talks unlikely to produce breakthrough without Trump-Putin meeting
Summary
A State Department secretary told reporters that meetings in Istanbul between Ukrainian and Russian delegations are expected but that a substantive breakthrough is unlikely unless President Trump and President Putin meet directly.
The secretary, a State Department official, said Tuesday that he will meet a Ukrainian delegation and the Syrian foreign minister in town while lower-level Russian negotiators will take part in talks in Istanbul, but he said he does not expect a major breakthrough without direct engagement between President Trump and President Putin.
Why it matters: The secretary framed direct presidential engagement as the only likely path to a decisive settlement, saying other talks at lower levels are unlikely to move the parties to a negotiated end to the fighting.
The secretary said a senior Ukrainian delegation will be in Istanbul and that "someone from our team will be involved in the Russia talks." He added, "I don't think we don't have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow," and repeatedly emphasized that, in his assessment, "the only way we're gonna have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin." He said the U.S. sent officials because there was reason to believe a direct engagement could happen but that the Russian side sent a lower-level group than hoped.
The secretary declined to raise expectations for immediate results. "I hope tomorrow the news says they've agreed to a ceasefire. They've agreed to enter serious negotiations. But I'm just giving you my assessment, honestly. I don't think it's gonna lead to that just because of the structure and how this has all played out," he said.
He described the president as "impatient to end this war" and said the president "is willing to stick with us as long as it takes to achieve peace" but that the administration will not continue to pursue meetings it judges unproductive. The secretary also said the timing and format of any direct meeting between President Trump and President Putin remain to be determined and would depend on decisions by the president.
The remarks followed reporters' questions about whether talks in Istanbul would be bilateral between Russia and Ukraine or include U.S. participants and about whether the U.S. would press for a deadline or other pressure on President Putin. The secretary said the U.S. role would be to support productive engagement and that he shared the president's view that only direct, high-level engagement is likely to break the logjam.
Less critical details: The secretary said he was scheduled to be in the region for other diplomatic events and that U.S. participation in the immediate meetings reflects those existing commitments rather than an extension of a separate global mediation effort.
