Zelensky agrees to send Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul for first direct talks with Russia since 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will send a Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov to the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years in Istanbul on Thursday, he said at a press conference in Ankara.

Zelensky, who will not attend the talks himself, said he had decided to send Ukrainian negotiators to Istanbul “out of respect” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump, “in an attempt to achieve at least the first steps towards ending the war”, despite the “low level” of the members of the Russian delegation.

The Ukrainian delegation is now en route to Istanbul, with the talks likely to take place either on Thursday evening or on Friday morning, Zelensky said.

Zelensky added that the Ukrainian delegation would remain in Istanbul until Friday, when it would meet with US representatives, reiterating that as Vladimir Putin had failed to arrive for the talks, there was “nothing” for either himself, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service or the chief of the Ukrainian General Staff to do in Istanbul.

If Russia fails to show that it is ready to end the war, Kyiv will ask Washington, the EU and the countries of the Global South to introduce “tough sanctions” on Russia, Zelensky added.

Zelensky also accused Russia of “disrespect” to Ukraine, as well as to Türkiye and the US as mediators in the upcoming negotiations. “They don’t respect Erdoğan, they don’t respect Trump. Trump is sending a large group of people to negotiate. [US Secretary of State Marco] Rubio is here. Türkiye’s Foreign Minister is here. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister is here. This is disrespectful on the part of Russia,” he reiterated.

While Zelensky had challenged Putin to attend the talks that Putin himself proposed in a surprise overnight address on Sunday, the Russian delegation that arrived in Istanbul on Thursday morning would instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin said.

Medinsky, the former culture minister who led Moscow’s delegation in abortive talks shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, said in a statement on Thursday that Russia sees the talks “as a continuation of the peace process in Istanbul” and that the Russian delegation “has all the authority and competence to conduct negotiations” and is “committed to finding solutions and common ground”.

The goal of the negotiations, according to Medinsky, is to “achieve long-term peace by addressing the basic root causes of the conflict”. The Russian delegation did not give any details about when the negotiations would begin.

Medinsky will be joined at the upcoming talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, according to the Kremlin.

After the Kremlin confirmed Putin would not be attending, the White House also said that US President Donald Trump would not disrupt his four-day tour of the Middle East to travel to Türkiye, despite Trump previously suggesting there was a “possibility” of him doing so.