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.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei issued a decree on Wednesday curbing immigration to the South American nation, a move coinciding with the immigration restrictions put in place by the Trump administration.
In a country that has long prided itself on its openness to immigrants, Milei’s abrupt measures and declaration that newcomers were bringing “chaos and abuse” to Argentina drew criticism from his political opponents and prompted comparisons to US President Donald Trump.
Milei’s government welcomed those parallels to its close American ally, with presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni saying it was “time to honor our history and make Argentina great again.”
Wednesday’s executive order tightens restrictions on citizenship, requiring immigrants to spend two uninterrupted years in Argentina or make a significant financial investment in the country to secure an Argentine passport.
Immigrants seeking permanent residency must show proof of income or “sufficient means” and have clean criminal records in their home countries.
The decree makes it much easier for the government to deport migrants who enter the country illegally, falsify their immigration documents or commit minor crimes in Argentina. Previously, authorities could only expel or deny entry to a foreigner with a conviction of more than three years.
It also asks the judiciary to fast-track otherwise lengthy immigration court proceedings.
“For some time now, we’ve had regulations that invite chaos and abuse by many opportunists who are far from coming to this country in an honest way,” Adorni told reporters. The presidential spokesperson is also the main candidate for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party running in the key Buenos Aires legislative elections Sunday.
In a big shift, the new decree also charges foreigners to access Argentina’s public health care and education while mandating that all travelers to the country hold health insurance. Adorni claimed that public hospitals had spent some $100 million on treating foreigners last year, without offering evidence.
“This measure aims to guarantee the sustainability of the public health system, so that it ceases to be a profit center financed by our citizens,” he said.
Foreign residents from all over the world have been guaranteed free access to Argentina’s extensive education and health systems since a 2003 law under then-President Néstor Kirchner, a left-leaning populist. Public universities and hospitals are now struggling to cope with sharp government spending cuts under Milei’s austerity program.
Right-wing politicians for years have railed against what Adorni described on Wednesday as “health tours,” in which people hop over the border, get treatment and go back home. Already, several northern provinces and the city of Buenos Aires have started charging non-resident foreigners fees to access health care.
Adorni said the decree allows universities to introduce fees for foreign studies if they so choose.
Critics worried that the new rules would challenge Argentina’s tradition of openness written over waves of migration through the decades. Although bursts of xenophobia have prompted crackdowns at various moments of turmoil, Argentina has welcomed surges of foreigners from all over Latin America, the Arab world, Asia and, more recently, Russia, offering a path to citizenship and ensuring their right to basic services.