If Russia genuinely had wanted talks, Putin would have attended - Matulionis

VILNIUS - Russian President Vladimir Putin would have attended the talks in Turkey if Russia had genuinely wanted to negotiate an end to the war with Ukraine, says Deividas Matulionis, senior national security advisor to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

"Whether we call it a proxy delegation or a third-rank delegation, if Russia had genuinely believed and wanted negotiations, it would have sent a more serious delegation, maybe even (Vladimir - BNS) Putin himself would have attended and would have negotiated directly with (Volodymyr - BNS) Zelensky," Matulionis told the public broadcaster LRT's The Topic of the Day program on Thursday.

"Zelensky said very clearly that I was ready to go to Turkey, he actually went and showed President (Donald - BNS) Trump that he can be trusted," he said, adding that"normal peace talks" always start with a ceasefire.

"Now the war continues, (...) this is an attempt to twist it around the finger, we do not see any prospect yet that this meeting can lead to a positive outcome of the negotiations," the presidential advisor said.

Over the weekend, Zelensky and the leaders of France, the UK, Germany and Poland urged Russia to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire from Monday as a precondition for direct talks.

However, Russia did not respond and Putin offered Ukraine to meet for direct talks in Istanbul on May 15.

"European leaders' last week's meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv and the conversation with Trump showed that there is a certain level of unity in the West, and apparently this has raised some questions for Putin who tried to take the initiative over. But sooner or later, I think Trump will realize who he is dealing with," Matulionis said.

In his words, Russia remains interested in continuing the war in Ukraine.

"It's an instrument for them to consolidate their domestic policy and at the same time an opportunity to continue to occupy Ukrainian territory. (...) The more we go on, the more we see that Putin is playing with time and showing that he seems to be interested in negotiations, but in reality absolutely nothing is happening," he said.