Russia-Ukraine Delegations Meet; New Schiller Institute Statement: ‘Step Back from the Brink of World War III!!’

June 2, 2025 (EIRNS)—Today the second meeting took place in Istanbul between delegations from Russia and Ukraine toward a resolution of their conflict, which meeting is a positive achievement. This is so despite the media-financial-military-complex attempt to smear the meeting as useless, as grounds to force more sanctions on Russia, and as grounds to see U.S. President Trump’s intent for peace as a failure, and even his Presidency as in question.

The strategic circumstances in which today’s Istanbul meeting convened are “very, very ominous,” is how Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and leader, described the situation today. She said that, “the world is one step closer to nuclear war,” referring to the May 31 Ukraine “Operation Spiderweb” attacks inside Russia, by locally placed drones on five military site targets, and the open question of the knowledge of the attack by President Donald Trump. What did he know, and when? Was he kept in the dark, she asked, by a “rogue CIA,” which has been deliberately mis-briefing him? This gets into circumstances constituting a coup in the U.S.

The specifics of the Operation Spiderweb yesterday are still to come out reliably, but the scope involved targeting attack drones at missile-capable bombers at five military aviation centers, in distant locations across Russia. The attack devices were drones put in position reportedly over 18 months, located near the facilities in disguised trucks, from which the devices were launched. The Russian Ministry of Defense reports fires and damage at two sites, saying that the attacks were repelled at the other three. Numbers of Western experts report that, however crude, the targeting, maintenance and detonation of the devices had to involve Western—that is, NATO-associated—networks. This gets into circumstances constituting outright NATO war against Russia.

Trump himself has been the target of a new and distinct pattern of media smear, for his backing for peace talks and settlement. As of mid-day May 31, during Operation Spiderweb, the media line went out in the Trans-Atlantic, as, for example, in the Washington, D.C.-based The Hill, that “Trump Was Not Informed on Ukraine Attack on Russia,” which soon became, that Trump was “in the dark,” and within 12 hours, the line was that, by CNN, “Trump’s Credibility Hanging by a Thread,” on the eve of the Istanbul talks.

At the same time, the war-making madness in circles of European leaders is more frenzied by the hour, asserting that Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb has shown how cunning Ukrainians are at continuing to hurt Russia. Today in Vilnius, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with the nations known as the Budapest Nine, and also the Nordic NATO nations, which groups issued a joint statement pledging to build up their forces against Russia. They call for NATO members to spend 5% of their national budgets on defense, not merely 2%. This feeds the countdown toward the June 24-28 NATO 2025 Summit at The Hague. Also this week, NATO Defense Ministers meet in Brussels, over June 9-11.

These happenings are not events for bystanders to watch. They are a call to action for getting out the truth to put a stop to the war escalation, and for citizens to mobilize their fellow citizens to enforce genuine diplomacy before it’s too late. Reports are that localities in Germany over the weekend saw small but important street protests against the war-machine now racing to send the Taurus missile to Ukraine, emplace new U.S. nuclear-capable arms in Germany in 2026, and back Ukraine until Armageddon ends life on Earth. This Saturday, June 7, there will be a protest demonstration in Berlin.

The Schiller Institute today issued the statement, “Step Back from the Brink of World War III!!” It was put into circulation in person around the United Nations today, and will be circulated in Washington, D.C. this week. The full text is included in this bulletin.

Join the action, and participate in the next International Peace Coalition meeting on Friday, June 6.