Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who is in Qatar for the second leg of a four-day trip to the Middle East, has no plans to join the talks after visiting the United Arab Emirates, an adviser said.
‘He’d like me to be there’
Trump had toyed with the idea of going to Turkey if Putin travelled, claiming that the Russian president had wanted him to be present for the talks in Turkey.
Speaking earlier this week, the US president said he did not know whether his Russian counterpart would appear at the talks but said he would “like me to be there”.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump told reporters en route to Qatar.
The US president also said he was “always considering” secondary sanctions on Moscow after the European Union unveiled a 17th package this week.
Kyiv’s European allies have called for Putin to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top negotiator who has met Putin several times, and Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy for Ukraine, will represent the US delegation.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, will also be in Istanbul on Friday, according to a US official, raising uncertainty over when the talks will take place.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Putin’s offer of direct talks with Ukraine “remained valid”.
“The Russian delegation will be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul on May 15,” Peskov added.
‘I’ll try to talk to Putin’
Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, said he will try to convince Putin to attend the talks.
He will stop over in the Russian capital on the way back to Brazil following the conclusion of a regional forum in China.
“I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula said at a press conference in Beijing ahead of his departure.
“It costs me nothing to say, ‘hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit’,” he said.
Zelenskyy told French news outlet Liberation that, should talks take place, he did not expect to agree with Putin on everything but that they “must somehow find a format to end the war”.
The Ukrainian president also said his absence would speak volumes, particularly if Trump were to attend.
“If he doesn’t come, it means he’s not seeking a political victory,” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelenskyy later revealed to journalists his plan to make sure Putin cannot confuse negotiations by showing up in a different city.
“We will be waiting to meet with Putin in Turkey. So that Russia does not manipulate cities and say that Putin is not ready to fly to Ankara, but is ready to fly only to Istanbul,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv during a press conference.
“I have conveyed the signal to President Erdogan, and the Turkish side is ready.”
It came as the European Union revealed it had approved a fresh package of sanctions on Russia.
Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said the package did not go far enough and that new sanctions must be put together by Europe and the US in order to “suffocate” Russia’s economy.
“We will have to go further, because these massive sanctions have not yet deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing his war of aggression against Ukraine,” Barrot told broadcaster BFMTV. “We must prepare to impose devastating sanctions that could suffocate the Russian economy once and for all,” he said.
In Vatican City, Pope Leo XIV offered to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”.
The new US pontiff, who became head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics last week, said: “The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace.
“The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!”
