MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky mulls resuming peace talks amid a corruption scandal, and the UN Security Council adopts a draft resolution on Gaza based on US leader Donald Trump’s peace plan. Meanwhile, the EU is not considering fast-tracking Ukraine’s membership. These stories topped Wednesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
On Tuesday, Vladimir Zelensky announced plans to visit Turkey on November 19 to step up negotiations on resolving the Ukraine crisis. According to Reuters, US envoy Steve Witkoff, too, will travel to Istanbul on Wednesday for talks with the Ukrainian leadership.
Last week, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, too, arrived in Istanbul. He said holding talks with his Turkish counterparts to restart POW exchanges was the goal of his visit. Meanwhile, no Russian negotiators will attend the November 19 meeting, the Kremlin said, adding that Moscow has not received any details regarding the issue.
Zelensky’s visit to Turkey looks like a political and diplomatic trick designed to help him win support from his Western colleagues and prevent his ratings from falling further amid the corruption scandal, or the Mindich case, Nikolay Toropnin, director of the European Information Center, told Izvestia.
