Zelensky will only speak with Putin at Istanbul talks, says aide

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will only agree to speak with Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on Thursday, his aide Mykhailo Podolyak told YouTube political programme The Breakfast Show on Tuesday.

“We understand how power in Russia works,” Podolyak said, noting that not even Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin “would be authorised to make decisions” on ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Only Putin can decide whether to stop or continue the war,” Podolyak continued, adding that Zelensky was offering to “get rid of all the unnecessary stages” and speak directly to Putin.

Commenting on Zelensky’s order banning direct negotiations with Putin that Moscow had previously urged Ukraine to rescind, Podolyak said those measures could be lifted if Putin arrived in Istanbul to negotiate with Kyiv.

Putin gave a speech in the early hours of Sunday morning, in which he offered to hold talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday “without preconditions”, prompting Zelensky to announce later that day that he would travel to Istanbul and expected Putin to do the same. “I hope that this time, Putin won’t be looking for excuses as to why he ‘can’t’ make it,” Zelensky wrote.

It remains unclear whether Putin plans to attend the negotiations in person, having given no indication of that in his Sunday speech. A now-deleted post by Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda suggested on Tuesday that Lavrov and Putin aide Yury Ushakov would represent Russia at the upcoming talks.

The Kremlin has remained non-committal on Putin’s attendance, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying on Tuesday that Moscow would inform the public about who would represent Russia at the talks “as soon as Putin sees fit to announce it”.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was “thinking” of going to Istanbul on Thursday for the potential Putin-Zelensky meeting, saying: “There’s a possibility there I guess, if I think things can happen.”