Putin skips out on the direct Ukraine peace talks that he suggested
ISTANBUL — Confusion swirled around high-stakes peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that were called for by Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday, as the Kremlin confirmed that Putin himself would be skipping the negotiations.
Uncertainty over the start date, location, and whether either side would even participate made for chaotic scenes in the Turkish capital Ankara, Antalya and Istanbul — outside whose Ottoman-era Dolmabahçe Palace some 200 journalists and crew were massed with no clear idea of when talks would get underway.
A back-and-forth between Kyiv, Moscow and the Trump administration dashed the U.S. president’s hopes of a three-way meeting involving Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
When asked Thursday whether Putin would be attending talks in Turkey, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN “no.” He added on a later media call that there are “no preparations” for talks between Putin and Trump in the coming days.
Putin made the suggestion for negotiations “without any preconditions” after Ukrainian allies, including Germany, France and the U.K. presented an ultimatum to Moscow to either accept the ceasefire proposal or face additional sanctions.
The Russian leader’s no-show is expected to further antagonize the White House, which has markedly changed its tone over the war in the past weeks. Even after his historic Oval Office shouting match with Zelenskyy, Vice President J.D. Vance has shifted to accusing Moscow of “asking for too much,” in the bilateral peace talks senior Trump administration officials have held with Russia in recent weeks.
That is partly because Trump’s major gripe with Ukraine — that American taxpayers have mostly funded Ukraine’s defense — was soothed after the two nations struck a mineral deals that would go some way to repaying American military aid.
Zelenskyy has also presented himself as compliant, backing Trump’s calls for an immediate 30-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump has said he is “always considering” additional sanctions against Russia if he believes Moscow is blocking the peace process, with officials also suggesting secondary sanctions on the buyers of Russian oil.
After heeding Trump’s calls to accept Putin’s initial suggestion of talks Sunday, Zelenskyy landed Thursday in Ankara.
Before a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan, Zelenskyy said he would meet with a broader Turkish delegation as well as American diplomats.
“The level of the Russian delegation is not officially known to me yet, but from what we see — it looks like not a serious level,” Zelenskyy, using a Ukrainian word meaning ‘sham’ or ‘theatrical.’
“We must understand the level of the Russian delegation and what mandate they have — whether they are even capable of making any decisions on their own,” Zelenskyy added, “because we all know who actually makes decisions in Russia.”
That was instead of joining the talks initially planned for Istanbul, after the Kremlin indicated late Wednesday that rather than Putin, or even Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, it was instead sending a relatively junior team headed by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin.
“This week really may change a lot — but only may,” Zelenskyy said in an X post Wednesday, adding, “I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take.”
“So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing,” he added.
While the Kremlin’s last-minute naming of a junior team will do little to dispel Ukrainian and European allegations that Putin is not taking Trump’s peace-brokering attempts seriously, the Russian delegation that arrived Thursday in Istanbul was “ready for serious work,” Russian foreign ministry Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing the same day.
As well as uncertainty over whether Ukraine would even send a delegation to the scaled down talks in Istanbul, Kyiv and Moscow appeared to disagree over the start time of talks.
While Russian media initially reported a 10 a.m. local time start (3 a.m. ET) at the Dolmabahçe Palace, that shifted to midday, and then after 5 p.m.
The confusion looked set to continue in Istanbul late Thursday morning, with American personnel appeared to be preparing a venue for a U.S. delegation to use as a base, with officials huddled in urgent meetings and two security staff arriving with a German Shepherd.
State-run broadcaster Russia 1 TV, meanwhile, that 89 Russian journalists have been accredited to cover the negotiations with the station’s reporters suggesting to NBC News that they were told the negotiations would conclude Thursday.
Keir Simmons and Natasha Lebedeva reported from Istanbul and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.
