Ankara, Türkiye: Russia and Ukraine will hold their first direct peace talks in three years, the two countries said Thursday, but hopes that the breakthrough will remain dark after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said he was sending a team led by his defense minister from Turkey’s capital Ankara to Istanbul to meet with the Russian delegation, although Moscow’s team did not include “anyone who actually made the decision”.
He said Ukraine’s side would be led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, whose purpose is to “at least try the first step of downgrading, which is the first step to end the war, a ceasefire,” he said.
Few expect Putin to appear in Türkiye, and his absence stimulated any hope of significant progress in ending the 3-year-old war in recent months by peaceful efforts by the Trump administration and Western European leaders. It also raises the prospect of intensifying Russian sanctions against Russia under threat from the West.
Zelenskyy flew to Ankara on Thursday after challenging Putin to sit down with him, accusing Moscow of not making serious efforts to end the war, calling him “theater props” by sending a low-level negotiating team.
His proposal to Putin put forward a diplomatic advantage in a series of actions last weekend.
Zelenskyy said he decided to send his delegation to Istanbul to demonstrate to U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine wanted to end the fight.
The Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say the war has killed thousands of soldiers and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians from both countries.
At least five civilians have been killed and 29 injured in the past day, according to authorities in five Ukraine regions where Russia is trying to advance.
Vladimir Medinsky, presidential aide to the Russian delegation, said in Istanbul that the deputies were ready to meet with Ukrainian officials.
“The task of direct negotiations with Ukraine is to establish long-term peace by eliminating the root causes of this conflict, sooner or later,” he said in a brief statement.
It is not clear when they will meet. Russian state news agency TASS reported that negotiations will continue on Friday, citing an unknown source.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he will hold a delegation of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Ukraine in Istanbul on Friday, adding that the Russian delegation will meet with other U.S. teams and he hopes everyone can be united.
“We don’t have high expectations for what will happen tomorrow. Frankly, at this point, I think it’s clear that the only way we can make a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters in Antalya, Turkey, where he attended a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier welcomed Zelenskyy to the presidential palace in Ankara for his own talks. Zelenskyy traveled to Albania on Friday to attend a gathering of European officials.
The weekend drill began Saturday, when European leaders met with Zelenskyy in Kiev and urged the Kremlin to agree to a complete, unconditional 30-day ceasefire, the first step towards peace. Putin responded earlier on Sunday by presenting direct negotiations with Istanbul Ukraine. Then Zelenskyy challenged Putin to have a face-to-face conversation.
After several days of silence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov finally said Thursday that Putin has no plans to go to Istanbul in the next few days.
Trump said he was not surprised that Putin did not show up. He urged Putin and Zelenskyy to meet, but revoked the decision of Kremlin leaders not to participate.
“I don’t think Putin can go,” Trump told a reporter in Doha, Qatar on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.
Trump said a meeting between him and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.
“Whether you like it or not, until (Putin) is with me, I don’t believe anything will happen,” he said in Air Force One, from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. “But we’re going to have to solve it because so many people are dying.”
Peskov said Putin has no plans to meet with Trump in the next few days.
The Kremlin said Putin’s aide, Medinsky, leads the Russian team, which also includes three other senior officials. Putin also appointed four low-level officials as “experts” for the Istanbul talks.
The talks were also absent from the talks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, both representing Russia in March to meet with the United States in Saudi Arabia.
Ukrainian officials said the senior Ukrainian delegation included Umerov, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Zelenskyy would only sit at the negotiating table with Putin.
Peskov said Putin met with senior government officials and delegation members on Wednesday to prepare for the talks. Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and National Security Council Secretary-General Sergei Shoigu attended the meeting.
Russia calls the negotiations a “restart” and the Kremlin’s bill to Istanbul was a “restart” of peace talks held there in 2022, and quickly collapsed. Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of the West of wanting to continue fighting, while Kiev said Russia’s request is equivalent to a last-distance and neither side can agree. The delegation was also led by Medinsky.
Putin’s proposal comes after Trump began more than three months of diplomacy, who quickly ended the war in the campaign – although it was difficult to achieve it. The Trump administration has shown in recent weeks that it could get rid of efforts without tangible progress.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha met with Rubio and Senator Lindsey Graham in Antalya on Wednesday night.
Sybiha reiterated Ukraine’s support for Trump’s mediation efforts and thanked the United States for its continued participation, urging Moscow to “integrate Ukraine’s constructive steps into peace. “So far, not,” Sibiha said.
Sibiha will also meet with other European foreign ministers on Thursday morning, including his French rival Jean-Noël Barrot, who reiterated the call for a ceasefire in his post on X, threatening to “massive sanctions” if Russia does not comply.
“We are in a very difficult place right now and we hope we can find steps forward in a negotiated way and prevent any war in the future,” Rubio said on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Putin of “standing on the side of peace.”
He said on a visit to Tilana in Albania: “Only one country started this conflict – that was Russia. That was Putin. Now there is only one country standing in a place of peace – that is Russia, that is Putin.”
Balott responded to this view: “In front of the Ukrainians, there is an empty chair that should be occupied by Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Vladimir Putin dragged his feet and did not want to participate in these peace discussions in all the evidence.”
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Associated Press writer Lorne Cook contributed to the report in Brussels; Illia Novikov and Samya Kullab in Kiev, Ukraine; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; Aamer Madhani in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Matthew Lee in Antalya, Turkey.
