Voice of Ukraine

From: Kyiv Post — In the early hours of May 11, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly called for direct peace talks with Ukraine, proposing Istanbul as the location. President Volodymyr Zelensky responded immediately: “See you Thursday.” This announcement followed a carefully staged Kremlin press conference—broadcast after midnight and introduced with a symbolic Western ballad, “House of the Rising Sun.” The choice of music, the timing after Russia’s May 9 Victory Day, and the absence of new concessions suggest this is not diplomacy, but calculation. Jason Jay Smart, Kyiv Post correspondent and political analyst, examines why this sudden outreach may be more about optics than substance. As Western allies intensify sanctions and China’s economic instability undermines the Russia-China axis, Moscow may be seeking to delay rather than negotiate.