A Russian, a Ukrainian, and a Turk Walk Into a Bar, of Sorts, and the Fisticuffs Fly

Drones grazing the Kremlin rooftop, hypersonic missiles downed about Kyiv, and bullets over Bakhmut are all angry signs of a European conflagration set to high heat, but what if all it took to douse the flames was a good old-fashioned fistfight? Unlikely, of course, but that is what transpired after a fashion during a parley of Black Sea countries at the Turkish parliament building at Ankara. The scuffle was like something straight out of the “The Jerry Springer Show,” pitting Ukrainian and Russian delegates against each other, with a Turkish official acting as referee. It happened just ahead of a trilateral meeting at Istanbul where delegates from Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey were scheduled to meet for the purpose of extending a deal to keep grain and fertilizer exports flowing through Black Sea ports. The arrangement, set to expire on May 18, is one of the rare areas of cooperation between Kyiv and Moscow since the Russian invasion more than a year ago. There was no word yet about the progress from that meeting, though the deal is likely to be renewed. The mood at Ankara started off on a tense note, though, when Ukrainian delegates waved Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag by the Russian delegate, Ola Timofeeva, while she was giving a speech. Things went downhill (or uphill, depending on how one looks at it) shortly thereafter. The Ukrainian delegate to the conference, Oleksandr Marikovski, a member of parliament, defiantly waved the flag behind Ms. Timofeeva while she appeared to be recording a video on her phone. Then an unidentified, white-haired man of indeterminate nationality abruptly snatched the flag, only to be instantly pursued by a visibly enraged Mr. Marikovski. In a nearby hallway, Mr. Marikovski tackled the startled flag taker, briefly grabbing his head and administering a quick series of blows from behind that sent his glasses to the carpeted floor. As he took back the flag in the rumble, what appeared to be two Turkish officials interceded to separate the two men, one of them uttering words to the effect of, “Please, no fighting.” To that, Mr. Marikovski replied, “It’s our flag. We’re going to fight for this flag.”Afterward, the Turkish parliamentary speaker, Mustafa Sentop, stated on social media that he condemned the “provocative and physically offensive actions of some members of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation” that disrupted the “environment of peace Turkey is trying to achieve.”The incident would be almost amusing had it not occurred against the backdrop of soaring tensions between Russian and the West as the anticipation surrounding Ukraine’s widely expected counteroffensive reaches a fever pitch. While Turkey has tried to cast itself in the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine — as evidenced by the grain deal, which is by no means insignificant — its track record of neutrality is mixed. A private Turkish company has supplied Ukraine with highly effective Bayraktar TB2 combat drones. At the same, President Erdogan has been both a fly in the ointment of NATO expansion, with respect to Finland previously and Sweden currently, and has warmed to President Putin in terms of commercial cooperation. During the altercation, Mr. Marikovski also appeared to employ a common Ukrainian and Russian epithet that is colorful but not fit to print. However, in a sign that Russia’s war on Ukraine is now frazzling nerves from plush carpeted assembly halls in Turkey to the frontlines of the embattled Donbas, Mr. Putin’s bald man at Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary group head, wielded the same word in a new, weaponized message to Moscow. In a graphic and angry video, Mr. Prigozhin criticized the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov. “You are just b—s who live in the office, while the children of Russia die. We withdraw from Bakhmut on May 10,” he said against the backdrop of what appeared to be recently fallen Russian soldiers. Well, Mr. Putin, starting a war for no reason and being on the losing side is indeed something of a сука, is it not?

A Russian, a Ukrainian, and a Turk Walk Into a Bar, of Sorts, and the Fisticuffs Fly

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