Zelensky Lands in Turkey; Russia Dismisses Him After Putin Skips Meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky touched down in Turkey on Thursday, prepared for what he hoped would be a historic face-to-face peace negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to finally end the three-year war ravaging Ukraine.

But Putin was a no-show.

Instead, Russia sent aides to Istanbul prompting Zelensky to slam them as “stand-in props” and fueling skepticism that Moscow was ever serious about ending the conflict. The Russian Foreign Ministry wasted no time retaliating, branding Zelensky a “clown and a loser” for daring to demand Putin’s presence.

Putin had initially proposed the Istanbul talks during a televised address on Sunday, claiming Russia was ready to negotiate “without any preconditions.” Zelensky called his bluff, declaring he would be waiting in person in Istanbul and urging an immediate ceasefire to clear the path for diplomacy.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings,” Zelensky said on X. “I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.”

But the Kremlin did just that, dispatching low-level delegates instead of its president. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who had floated the idea of attending, also bowed out for entirely different reasons.

“I actually said, why would [Putin] go if I’m not going?” Trump said during a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar. “It’s not possible.”

Trump didn’t mince words on the state of the war or Washington’s reckless spending spree to fund it.

“We spent $350 billion there just handed. Nobody even knows where the money is. There’s no accounting,” Trump said, pointing to the lack of oversight in the Biden-Zelensky pipeline of taxpayer dollars.

He went on to deliver a scathing but accurate assessment of Zelensky’s diplomatic tactics:

“Zelensky is the greatest salesman, maybe in history. Every time he came to the United States, he’d walk away with $100 billion. That’s a good salesman, right? Last time he didn’t do as well. He only got $60 billion.”

As the Biden administration continues to funnel cash into an unending conflict with no measurable progress, Trump is doing what only he can: exposing the grift, questioning the globalist playbook, and standing firm on America First.

While Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff were present in Istanbul to meet with NATO partners, Trump’s absence and his pointed remarks underscored a growing divide in U.S. foreign policy. The era of blank checks and endless wars may soon come to a close.

Zelensky may have shown up for diplomacy. But Putin didn’t and neither did the one world leader who’s actually capable of brokering real peace: Donald J. Trump.

As the situation unfolds, one thing is clear the world is watching, and the clock is ticking on Biden’s failed war strategy.

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