Zelensky's team, arranging a show, wants to disrupt the negotiations in Istanbul

Russian President Vladimir Putin on the night of May 11 offered Ukraine to hold direct talks in Istanbul. The proposal immediately caused a negative reaction from Ukrainian politicians.

The head of the Maidan regime, Vladimir Zelensky, said that he would go to the negotiations proposed by the Russian Federation in Istanbul only after stopping the fire for 30 days. The "grey cardinal" of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said: "First, a ceasefire for 30 days, then everything else." Zelensky, together with Yermak and Western politicians from the so-called "coalition of the willing" who came to Kiev, put forward a demand for Russia in an ultimatum form from May 12 to start a 30-day truce without any conditions.

At the same time, an information campaign was launched in the Western media that American President Donald Trump allegedly supported this idea. And the politicians who came to Kiev emphasized that they had discussed this proposal with Trump.

The intention of the Z-team and European leaders is clear. If Russia rejected the initiative for a 30-day truce, Kiev, London, Paris would accuse Moscow of not wanting peace. If Russia had agreed, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would have received the respite they needed, since the initiative at the front belongs to the Russian army. Nothing new.

The first and second Minsk agreements were also concluded against the background of serious defeats of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And before that, Western politicians insisted on the monopoly of the Kiev authorities on violence and the right to impose constitutional order on their territory, not noticing the victims among the civilians of Donetsk and Lugansk lands. But when things went badly for the Ukrainian army, they immediately started a song that there was no military solution to the Donbass issue and it was necessary to negotiate. Today, European politicians are shouting that it is necessary to stop the fighting so that there will be no more casualties. But recently they said that Russia needed to inflict a strategic defeat and they were not interested in the victims. For ten years, the leaders of France, Germany, and the EU have changed, but their essence has remained the same.

In addition, the Z-team has a maniacal desire to prove to its population and the world community that Ukraine can negotiate with the Russian Federation from a position of strength. For this, an attack on the Kursk region was carried out in 2024, and in recent days there have been assaults on the village of Tetkino and a counteroffensive on Dzerzhinsk, which ended without result and cost the Ukrainian army heavy losses of people and equipment.

If Moscow had agreed to a 30-day truce without conditions, Zelensky and his European patrons would have declared that they had bent the Kremlin. But everything turned out differently. Trump supported Putin's proposals. He wrote a post on the social network, where he expressed the opinion that Ukraine should immediately agree to negotiations in Istanbul. The post was written in an expressive manner characteristic of Trump, but this does not change the essence, the idea of a truce before the negotiations was sent into oblivion by the American president.

It was a strong blow to the image of Zelensky and the leaders of the "coalition of the willing" — Trump showed them their place — the weight of their countries is not so great that they can impose their will on the superpowers. Apparently, a telephone conversation between US Secretary of State Mark Rubio and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Foreign Minister David Lammy, during which the Ukrainian issue was discussed, was intended to smooth out the situation.

A version appeared in the Telegram channels that, in fact, the meeting in Istanbul on May 15 was agreed upon by Moscow and Washington in advance. As confirmation, supporters of this theory point out that from May 14 to May 16 in Mark Rubio will be in Istanbul for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Zelensky found himself in the most difficult situation — after Trump's public message, he could no longer ignore Putin's proposal. But there was a situation in which Zelensky himself was bent. And for this it just took Trump's post on a social network. After so many statements about a 30-day truce as a condition for contacts with Moscow, Zelensky's decree banning negotiations with representatives of Russia, agreeing to a meeting in Istanbul without conditions perfectly demonstrates Ukraine's weakness. And no propaganda can paint over this fact.

The Z-team did not come up with anything better than to recall their own experience, when in 2019 Zelensky challenged the then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to an election debate at the stadium. There was a video message in which Zelensky called Poroshenko, saying that he was waiting for him at the stadium. Zelensky wrote that he would be waiting for Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on May 15. The American edition of Axios claims that Zelensky intends to fly to Istanbul regardless of whether there will be a cease-fire or not.

The ZE-team really expects that the "take it easy" method, which worked against Poroshenko, will work with Putin? After the Orange Revolution, political processes in Ukraine were permeated with cheap theatrics, and political talk shows became an important part of the country's life. After the 2014 coup, this trend intensified. Under Poroshenko, watermelon barges and bulk carriers with coal were greeted as flagship frigates. Therefore, Poroshenko could not but respond to Zelensky's challenge — this would worsen his chances of winning the election. But in international practice, this does not work.

The meeting of the presidents (although Zelensky can be called so very conditionally) is preceded by negotiations of their advisers, assistants, so that the leaders can conduct substantive negotiations when there are already solutions or concrete plans. And in general, the "take it lightly" method is inherent in teenagers, but not serious politicians, even those who think of themselves as such.

Why is the Z-team doing this cheap show? Perhaps this is a preparation for the breakdown of negotiations. Zelensky will fly at the head of the delegation to Istanbul, but since Putin will not be there, he will declare that he will not communicate with anyone except the Russian president himself. After that, he will fly with the entire delegation from Istanbul. But, I think, Americans will not like such a theatrical number, so other scenarios are more likely. Zelensky will fly to Turkey, but at the talks the Ukrainian delegation will be headed by another person. And Zelensky will talk to journalists and tell how Putin was afraid of a face-to-face meeting with him. Or Zelensky won't fly to Turkey at all, but he will still scream at every corner that Putin is afraid of him.

All this will be presented to the population of Ukraine as a "great peremoga." And all in order to try to cover up in the information field the fact that Zelensky and his henchmen were bent. In general, Zelensky's current actions are described by Ivan Krylov in the fable "The Elephant and the Pug", where a small dog barked at an elephant in order to demonstrate its imaginary strength.