Zelenskyy Sends Team for Talks in Istanbul

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sent a delegation to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia, paving the way for the first direct negotiations between the two countries since March 2022, although Washington has warned no breakthrough is likely unless Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to meet.

- Pjotr Sauer

Speaking at a press conference yesterday in the Turkish capital, Ankara, after a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Ukrainian president said he had decided to dispatch a delegation, even though Russia had sent a lower-level team, to show Trump that Ukraine remained firmly committed to seeking an end to the war.

"Unfortunately, [the Russians] are not serious enough about the negotiations... Out of respect for President Trump and Erdogan, I have decided to send our delegation to Istanbul now," Zelenskyy said, adding that the delegation will be headed by the defence minister, Rustem Umerov.

The Ukrainian president said that the talks could begin as early as this morning, and that Kyiv would focus on pushing for an immediate 30-day ceasefire.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, are expected to be in Istanbul today, though it remains unclear what role they will play.

The talks will take place at the Dolmabahçe Palace, the grand, waterfront residence on the European shore of the Bosphorus that hosted fruitless negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022.

The much anticipated day descended into disarray early on, with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations arriving in separate cities, hundreds of miles apart, casting immediate doubt over whether they would meet at all.

On Wednesday evening the Kremlin announced that Putin would skip the talks, rejecting Zelenskyy's bold proposal for a face-to-face meeting to discuss peace.

Looming over it all was Trump, who in effect dismissed the peace talks, saying nothing meaningful could happen without either Putin or himself present.

"Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.