A Russian delegation arrived in Istanbul on Thursday morning without President Vladimir Putin, following speculation that he might attend talks being hosted by Turkey to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia's delegation is led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and includes Igor Kostyukov, head of the military's Main Intelligence Directorate, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin, state media reported. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was not listed as part of the delegation.
Mr Putin proposed the talks in Istanbul to find a way to end the war in Ukraine, which entered its fourth year in late February.
The call for talks, which Mr Putin said were to “to remove the root causes of the conflict,” came after European leaders met in Ukraine and threw support behind the idea of a 30-day ceasefire.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrived with his country's negotiators in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said he was ready to meet Mr Putin because “everything in Russia depends” on the leader of the Kremlin.
“Today we held several meetings with the team regarding the format in Turkey,” Mr Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Wednesday night. “I am waiting to see who will come from Russia and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take.”
US President Donald Trump, who is currently touring the Gulf, suggested he might attend the talks if Mr Putin planned to go and has sent US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and two senior envoys to Turkey.
"I was thinking about going but it's very tough because of what we're doing today and tomorrow," Mr Trump said from the Qatari capital Doha on Thursday. "But if something happened I'd go on Friday if it was appropriate, but we have people right now negotiating."
Mr Putin’s absence means that neither Mr Trump nor Mr Zelenskyy are likely to show in Istanbul and it is unclear if Ukrainian officials will meet directly with the Russians, or if third-country officials will pass messages between them.
No meetings have been finalised for Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, a ministry source told The National on Thursday morning.
A Ukrainian official quoted by Associated Press said details about the talks are expected to be clarified after Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Erdogan meet in the afternoon.
Russian state news agency Tass said the Istanbul talks “may mark the first direct contact between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine since March 2022”, referring to meetings that took place in the city soon after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
US officials have in recent months met separately with Russian and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia, attempting to broker an agreement to end the devastating conflict.
Mr Trump has specifically called on Mr Erdogan for Turkey’s help to reach a peace agreement − Ankara has maintained diplomatic relations with both Moscow and Kyiv throughout the conflict, and has also hosted separate talks between the US and Russia on restoring their diplomatic relations.
Any effort to end the Ukraine conflict faces challenges because the warring parties’ positions are so far apart. Moscow wants international recognition of its sovereignty over four areas of Ukraine’s territory, and for Kyiv to end its ambitions to join Nato. Ukraine wants guarantees of its security from western partners and for the possibility of its joining the alliance to remain open.
Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the last stop on his tour, that the peace process was unlikely to move forward until he held a meeting with Mr Putin.
“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” he said. “But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
