Erdogan said that Putin and Zelensky are not ready for a meeting yet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, are not yet ready for a bilateral meeting. This was announced to journalists on September 2 by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He clarified that he and his colleagues had analyzed the results of the Russian-American summit in Alaska, and also noted that they had received new assessments of the parties' positions during several telephone conversations with Putin and Zelensky. According to Erdogan, Moscow and Kiev are not against the continuation of the Istanbul format, but they are not ready for direct negotiations yet.

"When we suggested that Turkey might have an initiative to continue the Istanbul process, he (Putin. — Ed.) agreed: "Why not?" However, they (Putin and Zelensky. — Ed.) are not ready for this yet [for direct negotiations]," the Milliyet newspaper quoted him as saying.

The language of delusion: will the US convince Ukraine to agree to a deal

If this attempt fails and Washington withdraws from the settlement, the EU will have to dramatically increase spending on supporting Kiev.

Earlier, on August 30, US President Donald Trump positively assessed the prospect of trilateral talks with Putin and Zelensky. He expressed confidence that the Russian and Ukrainian leaders would meet, but doubted holding a bilateral meeting.

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