On this date, just one year ago, I published the following piece on the status of negotiations toward a ceasefire in Ukraine, titled “Another Day, Another Failure.”

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‘To the surprise of absolutely no one, yesterday’s meeting in Istanbul between the Russian delegation — led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky — and the Ukrainian team — headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov — concluded after barely an hour with an agreement to swap 1,200 prisoners of war and for Russia to return the bodies of 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

“But no movement toward a ceasefire.

“And just hours later, the two countries once again exchanged drone strikes, killing two and injuring another eleven people in the Russian resort city of Sochi, with three killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and several injured in Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia.

“In addition, a Russian missile attack struck — not a military facility, as they consistently claim to be targeting — but Odesa’s 200-year-old Pryvoz Market: an historic landmark, and one of the two most popular markets in Odesa.

“Ahead of the meeting at Istanbul, Ukraine’s Umerov said that Kyiv’s priority was to organize a meeting between Presidents Zelensky and Putin before the end of August; while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said that they did ‘. . . not expect a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible.’ [Laura Gozzi, BBC News, July 24, 2025.]

“Peskov said further:

“‘They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse,’ adding that there was a great deal of work yet to be done before such a meeting could take place. [Id.]

“Once again, Putin has made it quite clear that he has no intention of entering into peace negotiations in the foreseeable future.”

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And here we are, 365 days later, watching history once again repeat itself:

This time it was a 35-minute meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila, Philippines.

Thirty-five minutes devoted to a possible solution to a war now in its fifth year. Speaking to reporters, Rubio characterized the talks as “good” and “frank,” but said that fresh proposals would be needed in light of the failure of earlier attempts:

“The United States . . . is prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an end to a senseless war. . . . You think we settled the war in Ukraine in our 30 minutes here in Asia? That’s not the way it works.” [Alex Raufoglu, RFE/RL, July 23, 2026.]

Russia’s Foreign Ministry later issued a statement expressing the Kremlin’s dissatisfaction with U.S. supplies of weapons to Ukraine, and accused European allies of “destabilizing policies [seeking a] strategic defeat” for Russia. [Id.]

The Russian side again raised the issue of agreements they claim were reached at the Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, nearly a year ago. But the U.S. continues to deny that any meaningful terms were agreed upon in Anchorage — only repeated demands by Putin for concessions on Ukraine’s part. And yesterday, Rubio told reporters:

“We’ll have to find new suggestions and new ideas. Certainly that one was not acceptable to Ukraine at the time, and I don’t think it’s acceptable to them now either. In fact it’s probably less acceptable to them.” [Id.]

On his part, Lavrov had little to say. When questioned by reporters as he descended an escalator following the meeting, he either sidestepped or didn’t hear the questions. Pausing a few seconds, he finally replied to one reporter:

“Nice hairstyle.” [Id.]

Nice dodge, Mr. Lavrov.

So, again, “much ado about nothing.”

But no story concerning Moscow would be complete without two cents’ worth from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said that, while they are not overly optimistic about the prospects of a speedy end to the war, he does hope that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would return to Moscow when they are available, in order to continue negotiations.

And we all know how useful they’ve been so far — or are likely to be in the future. If I may be permitted one more brief quote from Shakespeare, this time from Macbeth:

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/24/26