‘Europe will never drop Ukraine: There is no prospect of complete victory for Russia’

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in three years. A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov sat down with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. Officials and observers expect the Turkish-brokered talks to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than three-year war. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s William Hilderbrandt welcomes Sven Biscop, Director of the Europe in the World programme at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and Professor at Ghent University, lecturing on strategy and the foreign policies of Belgium and the EU.