The Russian side did everything possible to push the United States out of the negotiation platform in Istanbul — and they succeeded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a briefing. According to him,

Since last sitting down with Ukraine to talk peace, Russia has launched four of its five largest drone attacks against the country, killed more than 340 of its civilians and continued to peddle its false narrative about the unprovoked war it has been waging for more than a decade.