Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a second-tier team of negotiators to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, spurning Kyiv’s challenge to go there in person to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Putin’s no-show plunged prospects for the talks – which would be the first since the early weeks of the war – into confusion. Russia said they would take place in Istanbul in the second half of the day, but Turkey said no meeting was scheduled yet.
U.S. President Donald Trump, on a tour of the Gulf, told reporters there would be no movement on peace talks in the absence of a meeting between himself and Putin.
“Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One before landing in Dubai. His comment seemed to further undermine the potential for diplomatic progress in Turkey.
The warring sides have been wrestling for months over the logistics of ceasefires and peace talks while trying to show Trump they are serious about trying to end what he calls “this stupid war”.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded on both sides in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Washington has threatened repeatedly to abandon its mediation efforts unless there is clear progress.
Zelenskiy, arriving in Ankara, described the Russian line-up of Putin aides and deputy ministers as “decorative”. He said Ukraine would decide its next step after he had met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“We need to understand what kind of level the Russian delegation is, and what mandate they have and whether they can make any decisions,” he said.
Russia said its team was in Istanbul and ready for serious work, and accused Ukraine of “trying to put on a show” around the negotiations.
Asked if Putin would join talks at some future point, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “What kind of participation will be required further, at what level, it is too early to say now… The Russian delegation is ready, and it is waiting in Istanbul.”
Russia said on Thursday its forces had captured two more settlements in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. A spokeswoman for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointedly reminded reporters of his comment last year that Ukraine was “getting smaller” in the absence of an agreement to stop fighting.
Source: Reuters
