Vladimir Putin has declined to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The Russian President is instead sending a low-level delegation headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a former Culture Minister who is now a Kremlin aide. The move has quashed hopes of a breakthrough in the conflict.
Zelensky had challenged Putin to meet face-to-face in Turkey for the first direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow since the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
US President Trump, who had said he could join the talks if a deal seemed possible, has also now cancelled his trip to Turkey.
Vladimir Putin
REUTERS
A US official confirmed the 47th President would not be travelling after learning Putin would not attend.
“I know he would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. If we could end the war, I’d be thinking about that,” Trump had said on Wednesday.
Trump had been willing to reschedule his Gulf tour “to save a lot of lives”.
The Russian delegation also includes Alexander Fomin, a deputy defence minister, and Igor Kostyukov, a GRU military intelligence chief.
Both Medinsky and Fomin participated in unsuccessful talks between the two countries in Istanbul in 2022.
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Donald Trump
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Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, was planning to travel to Istanbul, Trump said before the Kremlin’s announcement.
“Marco is going and Marco has been very effective,” he said.
Kyiv has said that Zelensky will refuse to negotiate with any Russian officials apart from Putin in Istanbul.
The Ukrainian leader said he would wait to see if Putin was planning to turn up before deciding his next moves.
“If Putin doesn’t come, it will look like a complete defeat for him,” Zelensky told European media outlets.
Volodymyr Zelensky
Reuters
He also warned that Ukraine’s future as a state was at risk if fighting continued. “No one knows how long it will last. But not ten years. Ukraine wouldn’t survive,” he said.
Brazil and China issued a joint statement calling for direct talks as the “only way to end the conflict”.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s President, spoke to Putin by phone and urged him to attend the Istanbul talks.
Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire and former Chelsea Football Club owner, was also spotted at a Kremlin meeting.
This sparked speculation he could be heading to Turkey for the talks, having previously acted as a backchannel between Kyiv and Moscow.
Russian opposition analysts had speculated Putin might announce his participation at the last moment, forcing Trump to attend and presenting a Kremlin-favourable peace deal.
