wherever they take place, in istanbul or elsewhere, they will pursue the same goal. russia will try to force ukraine to a settlement that will be very disadvantageous for ukraine and very advantageous for russia. therefore, if these negotiations take place under the current conditions, i do not expect any new radical changes in their content. i think that the russian delegation will continue to put forward the same preconditions as at the recent negotiations in istanbul. they said that there will be none.

statute of limitations, which is obviously unacceptable for ukraine. that's right, you just mentioned istanbul, where the first negotiations took place in the spring of 2022. why do you think russia decided to go to istanbul, to turkey? turkey is a nato member, but several rounds of negotiations took place there, including negotiations on the grain deal, not only on ending the war. why turkey? we need to look back a little at turkey's role as a mediator even before 2022. since 2014, turkey has played a very useful mediator role between russia and ukraine, mainly by helping.

with a very important player in the black sea. turkey did a lot to help ukraine in the war when it closed the basfor and dordanelles straits at the beginning of the war, preventing russia from moving its naval forces from outside the black sea. as a result, russia was unable to carry out an amphibious operation, for example, in odessa. so, yes, this balance of turkey helps ukraine.

in every other area. that's what russia is doing. it cannot undermine its relations with turkey, primarily because turkey helps russia in many other ways. i would even say that for the kremlin, turkey is seen as a kind of useful trojan horse in nato. you know, it might try to use the relationship with turkey to undermine unity within nato. i'm not saying it will work, but russia is certainly trying.

but is turkey a trojan horse, in your opinion? i think we have to try to see the more complex picture. ukraine, trying to balance russia until 2022 years, but also after 2022. turkey has supported ukraine diplomatically, politically, and also on the issues of the release of prisoners of war that i mentioned. so there are many, many aspects. moreover, in nato, turkey always says that we adhere to nato's policy towards russia, except of course for sanctions, which is a very important note that i bring here, that's the difficulty, so it's not a trojan horse. what i meant by that term is that russia is definitely trying to exploit the sensitivities,

vulnerability the complexity of turkey's geography, its proximity to turbulence all around, on its perimeter, to actually maintain that turbulence. and... to use turkey as a kind of conduit to send their messages to the west. turkey is part of the west, but it is a very special part of it, very distinctive. let's talk about the main topic of our conversation, the negotiations in turkey. we've seen one round, there will be a second. turkey is simply providing a place, a beautiful palace, food and drinks for the negotiations, or is it playing the role of an unofficial mediator in these negotiations? what do you know? turkey is a mediator, a facilitator, as they call themselves , of these negotiations, so it is clearly not only about the venue, we have seen very active turkish peace, as they call it peace diplomacy,

working with ukrainian and russian colleagues, negotiations with both sides, i mean, this may not be very pleasing to some, such sometimes visually sincere and...

to achieve success, if russia will not agree to a ceasefire. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov has said a lot of positive things about turkey as a venue for the talks, what do you think he likes, what is so special about turkey from russia's point of view? i think there was a precedent for the talks in 2022, when they were actually talks about the capitulation of ukraine. had an advantage in these talks, the whole atmosphere of the talks was very unfavorable for ukraine. this is the best advertisement for istanbul for russia. in a sense, they can return these negotiations to the historical precedent of 2022. as i said, in their view,

istanbul 2025 is simply a continuation of the interrupted istanbul 2022. for ukraine , this is not the case. it is obvious that the ukrainians believe that for a start in istanbul and

"i am afraid that now turkey cannot exert any influence on russia, because we are talking about negotiations between russia and ukraine, and president erdogan can try to convince his russian counterpart to make big concessions, but i think that the russian side expects, "that it is ukraine that has to make these painful concessions, but then again, why should ukraine agree to these demands that it considers truly absurd?" "so i think that unless there is some radical change in the geopolitical

situation, some military success by one of the parties, or something that significantly changes the status quo, that is, unless russia feels threatened or sees, say, a change in the position of the united states, which will become more assertive, will make demands demands on russia and to try to contain it more decisively than president trump has been willing to do so far, so if something changes.

meeting between the presidents of ukraine and the united states, zelensky and trump, which was perceived in the west as a turning point in relations between washington and kiev. the vatican is also ready to accept a delegation from ukraine to russia, but moscow has recently made it clear that it does not view the vatican as a venue for negotiations. our guest, professor regina elsner, a theologian, catholic, and specialist in orthodoxy, employee of the university of münster. let's start with this: after the recent statements by the head of the russian foreign ministry sergey

lavrov, a meeting between the delegations of russia and ukraine in the vatican seems unlikely, is there still some chance, what will it depend on? well, there is always hope for some chance, i must say, and indeed, as you said, the invitation to the vatican and in general for the new pope, the new pope, he gave... new hope for some kind of change in this impasse in which we seem to find ourselves it's been too long, but we also see that all negotiations. in fact, depend on the russian side, and as soon as the russian side is really ready for some changes, some real changes in this war, then there will be a chance to meet anywhere, but including in the vatican, a lot depends here on the russian side, and what do you think, why didn't russia immediately say that it is against

the vatican, that is, for some time this possibility was discussed and it seemed that it was possible, then suddenly lavrov says: no, well, these will be two orthodox countries and it will be somehow inconvenient for us to conduct negotiations there on a catholic platform. yeah. well, it seems to me that there are two factors here, one factor is that the russian side has been trying to gain time for many months, many years, i must say, and this is also happening here, yes, they think for quite a long time, they pretend that something will be good, and maybe we will agree, and so...

all these channels, and there is a religious factor, the vatican is also a religious organization, there are contacts with russia along these two lines, there is a diplomatic connection and there is a religious connection, there are ecumenical relations, which have been quite good in recent decades, namely the vatican and the russian russian orthodox church, they cooperated very closely, they were friendly.

somehow get through to kirill , come to an agreement with him and the patriarch, find a common language with him and somehow influence the conscience, so there were attempts to somehow influence, but precisely, as we see on this religious line, on the religious lines, in my opinion, were without a chance, and pope leo, he is now trying to hold on quite strictly at the political level, he is trying

not to open this line yet, to agree on church, religious... to strengthen and through this to open some new window of opportunity, politicians, world politicians used this moment, that there is a new pope, he has another, different attitude to all this, and this can be used, this is a new chance, this is the attitude, you said neutrality, yes, the previous pope remembered. in ukraine with his statement that ukraine should perhaps think about raising a white flag, this is a non-verbatim quote, and this outraged many people, and it seems to me that perhaps, therefore, in any case, the ukrainian side did not consider the vatican as a platform for negotiations, as a mediator, now, returning to the topic of neutrality, how neutral is

the new pope, will he offer ukraine to also hang out a white flag or vice versa? russia, he was not associated with ecumenical discourses, he was not involved in all this, so he can stay away for now, precisely as a diplomatic person,

in addition, francis, of course, had a very strong pacifist, pacifist, pacifist pacifist position, which in principle has always been used by russia in support of its position, and ukraine, of course, remained in second place here, unfortunately. and to what extent this new diplomatic initiative of the new pope is, to what extent it is shared by the catholics in general around the world, i do not know whether any are being carried out polls.

a lot of work is being done, but the main thing, yes, the strength, you could say, of vatican diplomacy, it has always been its closed nature in history, a lot of this happens behind the scenes, and i can imagine that in russia, maybe, but definitely also in ukraine, in the us, it is the vatican diplomats who are trying very hard to be in conversation with everyone, you mentioned the us, this meeting of zelensky and...

at the burial of pope francis , a lot of people, politicians came there without any political background, they just wanted to be there because they had to be there at that moment, and it seems to me that trump, he also has his own personal difficulties, as we see on the international stage, but for him it was very important, including for his catholic colleagues, jedi vance,

it was also very important to thank in this way and show their gratitude to the vatican, the catholic church for the support that the vatican has tried to give over the last 3 years, so it was most likely just, you could say, yes, it was a lucky chance that... everyone could meet without, exactly without having to agree, to meet, but simply be in one place, at one time, and there and talk to each other. you've already mentioned the ties between the vatican and the russian orthodox church, but how have the relations between these churches changed over the last 3 years, since the russian orthodox church openly supports the war against ukraine and blesses it. isn't this a problem for the vatican? it's a big. problem for the vatican in fact, um, but here too there is - a process that took place, as i already said, before 22 the second year, the relationship of the russian

orthodox church. the sense in this situation and the russian orthodox church used it strongly and the vatican over time over the last 3 years realized that at this level talking with the patriarch, also with the metropolitans, this most likely has the opposite effect, it is most likely that moscow will

use pictures with... i am rather skeptical about this, i think that while rome believes, the vatican believes that it can some kind of mediation to play a role, the pope will not go anywhere, not to kiev, and i don’t think that he is going to rome or moscow, and this is not only connected with neutrality, it is also connected with the fact that sergei lavrov has now very, very clearly said that the catholic church,

it and the pope, as its main... representative, they have no, no, no authority in russia, as an orthodox country, let’s say, therefore to go there, it would be to russia, to go would be very, well, i think that this is impossible, in fact, russia will not allow it, until nobody goes to russia, then nobody will go to kiev, as long as they want to play this role, if they understand that they can't play this poverty for sure, then i think it will be possible to open up.

women will be specially protected from any attacks on their honor, in particular from rape, forced prostitution or any other indecent attacks.

dalnie zelenets is one of the most remote and hard-to-reach settlements on the northern coast of the kola peninsula. it is populated rather formally, after all, only a few people live here all year round. and it is completely impossible to get to zelentsy by land routes in the off-season. but despite all this, there are two curious people here in the village.