ISTANBUL: Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow are set to hold their first direct talks on the possibility of ending the war in Ukraine for more than three years.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has announced he will travel to Turkiye, while Russia’s Vladimir Putin indicated he will not attend the talks.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy and US President Donald Trump’s call for a swift end to the fighting, Moscow and Kyiv’s demands appear to be far apart.
Russia has repeatedly demanded to keep the territory in southern and eastern Ukraine that it occupies and for Kyiv to cede even more land.
Moscow in 2022 annexed four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — despite not having full control over them.
Russia also annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and has held it ever since.
President Vladimir Putin last year demanded Ukraine pull its forces out of parts of those regions that its army still controls as a prerequisite to any peace settlement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said recognition of Moscow’s ownership of these territories was “imperative” for any negotiations.
Kyiv has said it will never recognize its occupied territories, including Crimea, as Russian.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv may be forced to try to secure their return through diplomatic means — effectively conceding that Russia could maintain control over some land in any peace deal.
Russia has also demanded that Ukraine be barred from joining the NATO military alliance and has repeatedly said it wants Zelensky removed from office.
Russia had intended to topple Zelensky when it launched its invasion in 2022, with Putin calling in a televised address for Ukraine’s generals to oust him in a coup d’etat and then open talks with Moscow.
Putin in March floated the idea of Ukraine being put under a UN-backed “temporary administration,” refreshing his call to essentially remove Zelensky.
Russian officials have throughout the war called for the “de-militarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine — casting Kyiv as a neo-Nazi “regime.”
Kyiv, the West and independent experts have rejected those narratives.
Russia has also sought at times to limit the size of Ukraine’s army, wants Ukraine to be declared a neutral state and for Western countries to stop supplying it weapons.
Zelensky has for months been calling for “security guarantees” for Ukraine to stop Russia invading again.
His top demand would be for Ukraine to be admitted to NATO, or for Ukraine to fall under the military alliance’s Article Five collective defense term.
Trump has however, dismissed the possibility of Ukraine joining the bloc and Russia says NATO membership would be “unacceptable.”
Instead, Kyiv is pushing for some other form of Western military commitment that would deter Moscow.
Britain and France are leading discussions about a possible European troop deployment to enforce any ceasefire, among a group of countries dubbed the “coalition of the willing.”
But Zelensky and Kyiv still want Washington to back-up any “security guarantee.”
Moscow has said it would not accept troops from NATO countries being deployed to Ukraine in any capacity.
Zelensky wants an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire to cover combat on air, sea and land.
He accepted a US proposal for that in March but Putin rejected it.
Putin has instead ordered two short “truces” — over Easter and to cover Russia’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations.
Air attacks dipped during the periods but Ukraine accused Moscow of violating both on hundreds of occasions.
In his late-night address from the Kremlin calling for the direct Russia-Ukraine talks, Putin said he did not “exclude” that some kind of ceasefire could be agreed between the sides.
Ukraine peace talks: What are Kyiv and Moscow’s positions?
https://arab.news/y5d4c
Ukraine peace talks: What are Kyiv and Moscow’s positions?
Bangladesh’s Tarique Rahman poised to be PM as Jamaat-e-Islami concedes election
- Election Commission figures showed Bangladesh Nationalist Party won a landslide victory in Thursday’s polls
- Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman says ‘we recognize the overall outcome, and we respect the rule of law’
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s largest religious party conceded defeat in elections on Saturday, despite earlier alleging problems with the vote count, clearing the way for nationalist leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister.
Election Commission figures showed Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had won a landslide victory in the elections on Thursday, the first since a deadly 2024 uprising ousted the iron-fisted rule of Sheikh Hasina.
The success of BNP chief Rahman, 60, marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.
Rahman, the scion of one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, is expected to make a victory speech later on Saturday.
His father, president Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981, while his mother, Khaleda Zia, served three terms as prime minister and dominated national politics for decades.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has led the country of 170 million as interim leader since the uprising, said Rahman “would help guide the country toward stability, inclusiveness, and development.”
The BNP alliance won 212 seats compared with 77 for the Jamaat-e-Islami-led alliance, according to the Electoral Commission.
‘VERDICT OF THE PEOPLE’
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman, 67, had said on Friday he would “seek redress” from the commission, with his party alleging “inconsistencies and fabrications.”
But a day later, he conceded defeat.
“In any genuine democratic journey, the true test of leadership is not only how we campaign, but how we respond to the verdict of the people,” the Jamaat leader said in a statement.
“We recognize the overall outcome, and we respect the rule of law.”
Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from taking part. Hasina, 78, who was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity, issued a statement from hiding in India decrying an “illegal and unconstitutional election.”
The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while neighboring India praised Rahman’s “decisive win,” a notable shift after deeply strained ties.
China and Pakistan, which both grew closer to Bangladesh since the 2024 uprising and the souring of ties with India, where Hasina has sheltered since her ouster, also congratulated the BNP.
International election observers said the polls had been a success, with the European Union saying Saturday they had been “credible.”
The International Republican Institute noted that while “election administration was technically sound, the broader political environment remains fragile.”
‘SUCCESSFUL’
Jamaat’s Rahman said his party “will serve as a vigilant, principled, and peaceful opposition, holding the government to account.”
Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker told AFP that the vote had been a success.
“It was by far the best election,” he said, noting that voting was canceled at only one of the more than 42,000 polling centers.
“People had doubts about whether a successful election could be held under these circumstances, but we have done it,” he said Saturday. “If anyone still has any issues, they can go to court.”
The Election Commission said turnout was 59 percent across 299 constituencies out of 300 in which voting took place.
Only seven women were elected, although a further 50 seats in parliament reserved for women will be named from party lists.
Shafiqur Rahman stressed the significant gains his Islamist party had made compared with past elections, after years of being crushed under Hasina.
“With 77 seats, we have nearly quadrupled our parliamentary presence and become one of the strongest opposition blocs in modern Bangladeshi politics,” he said. “That is not a setback. That is a foundation.”
Voters on Thursday also endorsed proposals in a referendum for a sweeping democratic reform charter backed by Yunus, to overhaul what he called a “completely broken” system of government and to prevent a return to one-party rule.
Those include prime ministerial term limits, a new upper house of parliament, stronger presidential powers and greater judicial independence.
Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean warned that the incoming government now faced “daunting challenges,” including “boosting the economy, ensuring security and continuing the reform process.”
