President Zelenskyy confirmed that he would send a delegation to Istanbul. Photo / Getty Images
The Ukrainian and Russian delegations attending their first direct peace talks in years in Turkey spent much of Thursday in the same country but in different cities, pointing to the deep divide between the warring sides.
The talks, between Turkey’s top diplomat and a Russian delegation have now finished for the day and will continue tomorrow.
After days of chaotic preparations, shifting schedules and Government planes crisscrossing Turkish airspace, delegations met in Istanbul, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he wasn’t anticipating any “major breakthrough” given the relatively low rank of officials sent by Russia.
“The level of team that was sent by the Russian side is certainly not indicative of one that’s going to lead with a major breakthrough,” Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Nato ministers in Turkey.
“The only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin. It’s going to require that level of engagement to have a breakthrough in this matter,” he said.
Speculation had been rife that the talks, called for by Russian President Vladimir Putin and agreed to by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would include the two leaders and maybe even President Donald Trump. Instead, Russia sent a lower level delegation of deputy ministers, experts and intelligence officials.
Morning discussions were postponed after the Ukrainian delegation stayed in the capital, Ankara, where Zelenskyy was meeting his Turkish counterpart. He described the level of the Russian delegation sent to Istanbul as “more like a sham level”.
Following his meeting in Ankara, Zelenskyy confirmed that he would send a delegation to Istanbul “notwithstanding the low level of the Russian delegation”. He said he was “hoping to demonstrate our willingness and at least try to take the first steps toward ending this war, specifically achieving a ceasefire”.
Zelenskyy questioned whether the Russian team consisting primarily of deputies and policy experts was authorised to make any decisions.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, countered in remarks at the Russian Consulate in Istanbul that his team “has the mandate to conduct negotiations”, adding that his team was approaching the negotiations in Istanbul with “a constructive mindset”.
“Russia views the negotiations as a continuation of the peace process in Istanbul, which was interrupted by the Ukrainian side three years ago,” he told a crowd of journalists.
The comment echoed Putin’s remarks Sunday, in which he did not acknowledge Western demands for a 30-day ceasefire and instead pushed to “resume” the failed 2022 direct talks with Ukraine during the early months of the war, seeking to keep Trump engaged in the process and avoid painting Russia as the difficult party.
During the talks in spring 2022, Moscow put forward conditions Ukraine viewed as unacceptable and undermining its long-term security, such as capping the size of its military.
In his Ankara news conference, Zelenskyy also doubled down on the need for the initiative of his European allies, who threatened last week to pass tough sanctions against Russia’s banking and energy sectors if it declines to implement the 30-day ceasefire unconditionally.
After Trump backed Russia’s suggestion for direct talks, that proposal derailed European efforts to get the US on board for more restrictions on Moscow.
“We want to see a strong package of sanctions,” Zelenskyy said Thursday. “Right now, Russia is clearly demonstrating that it has no intention of ending this war.”
When asked if he was disappointed at the level of the Russian delegation to the talks that he had promoted, Trump said on Thursday that he wasn’t. “Look, nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he told reporters on Air Force One from Qatar.
Putin’s attendance appeared to be a long shot from the start – he never said he was coming to begin with – but the Kremlin held a two-day pause, refusing to reveal its team, while Trump has continued to hint from his trip through Persian Gulf states that he may take a detour if he thinks “it would be helpful”.
The Trump administration also raised the profile of the US presence at the talks by announcing that special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg would attend the meetings in Istanbul on Friday.
Ukraine had originally sent a high-level team that includes Zelenskyy’s closest adviser, Andriy Yermak, presidential aide Ihor Zhovkva, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. The team, however, has stayed away from Istanbul after Putin sent the lower-level delegation.
The Ukrainian delegation that will finally go to talk to the Russians will be led by Umerov.
Many have interpreted the composition of the Russian delegation as a sign that Putin has not moved from his hardline demands for Ukraine, including a limit on the size of its military.
“The chances of a peaceful outcome in this round have plummeted after Putin announced his negotiators,” Russian political analyst Vladimir Pastukhov said. “Unless something changes dramatically [on Thursday], which is unlikely, then this ‘negotiator lineup’ is a signal that Putin has chosen war over de-escalation.”
Rubio, who is expected in Istanbul on Friday, said: “I hope I’m 100% wrong. I hope tomorrow … they’ve agreed to a ceasefire, they’ve agreed to enter a series of negotiations, but I’m just giving you my assessment.”
The Russian delegation is headed by Medinsky, who led the earlier failed negotiations in 2022. He is a conservative former culture minister known for revisionist historical essays who now serves as an adviser to Putin. A new addition appeared to be Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russian military intelligence, or the GRU.
A Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, acknowledged the Russian delegation is low level but said the inclusion of intelligence officials could contribute to the talks, unlike the political delegates, such as Medinsky, whom he described as “nothing”.
Russian officials signalled their determination to base Thursday’s talks on a document that was under negotiation in 2022, but never agreed upon. The document was unacceptable to Kyiv because it gave Russia a veto over Western military assistance to Ukraine in case of resumed conflict. It also barred Ukraine from Nato membership, slashed its military and forced neutrality on Ukraine.
Putin and Zelenskyy have met only once, in 2019, in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to discuss the earlier Ukrainian peace process based on the Minsk agreements.
The meeting failed to resolve the crisis caused by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its orchestration of rebel uprisings in eastern Ukraine the same year.
Trump administration officials have offered concessions to Putin, including ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine and indicating that Russia would keep Ukrainian territory it has occupied. But Putin rejected Ukrainian and European demands, backed by Trump, for a 30-day ceasefire, instead proposing direct talks with no ceasefire.
Putin’s most recent stalling tactic runs the risk that Russia could drag out talks over the summer while attempting another offensive in Ukraine after months of a gruelling war of attrition, sidestepping US and European calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.
From the Nato meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused Putin of dragging his feet. “Vladimir Putin sent a low-level delegation to Turkey today because he wants to avoid the massive sanctions that the US and Europeans are preparing to force him to enter peace into negotiations.”
Putin is treading a delicate path, trying to avoid the blame should peace talks fail, while creating the conditions for Trump to cut off future arms deliveries and intelligence to Ukraine if peace talks do not progress.
The Russian leader has conditioned any ceasefire on Ukraine being barred from receiving Western weapons and ammunition or recruiting soldiers. But there is no talk of slowing Russian military production, which has been running hot since the invasion, potentially offering Moscow a massive advantage in relaunching hostilities after any ceasefire.
– Francis and Hudson reported from Antalya, Turkey. Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, and Anastacia Galouchka and Siobhán O’Grady in Kyiv contributed to this report.
- Additional reporting: Agencies
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