Vladimir Putin will not travel to Istanbul for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Kremlin has said, rejecting the Ukrainian president’s bold proposal for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey to discuss peace.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the Kremlin said its delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Putin aide who led the only previous round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
Shortly after the Kremlin’s announcement, a US official said Donald Trump would also skip the talks. Trump had previously suggested he would travel to Turkey only if Putin were present.
Medinsky, the ultra-conservative former Russian culture minister, will be joined in Istanbul by a deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, a deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Galuzin, and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s military intelligence agency.
Russia’s decision to appoint Medinsky to lead the talks suggests it aims to revive negotiations along the lines of the fruitless 2022 Istanbul round, which included maximalist demands such as limiting Ukraine’s military and blocking it from rebuilding with western support – terms Kyiv has rejected as unacceptable.
Notably, the Kremlin is not sending its two most senior diplomats, Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov, who have previously taken part in multiple high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.
Pressure had built on Putin to attend the talks since Zelenskyy and then Trump called on him to travel to Istanbul to discuss a potential peace deal.
Zelenskyy challenged Putin to a personal meeting in Turkey after the Russian leader used an unexpected late-night Kremlin address to call for direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul.
Much is still unclear about Thursday’s talks, which are taking on growing importance amid escalating rhetoric and strategic posturing by Russia and Ukraine.
Zelenskyy was en route to Ankara on Wednesday evening, where he is scheduled to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Thursday, according to his aides.
The Ukrainian leader said he would be ready to fly to Istanbul at a moment’s notice if the Russian leader showed up. “If Putin does not arrive, and plays games, it is the final point that he does not want to end the war,” he said on Tuesday.
Late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, posted on social media pictures of a meeting in Turkey with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US senator Lindsey Graham. Sybiha said the three men met to “further peace efforts and coordinate positions during this critical week”.
He added: “It is critical that Russia reciprocate Ukraine’s constructive steps. So far, it has not. Moscow must understand that rejecting peace comes at a cost.”
Trump had previously urged Zelenskyy to accept the offer of negotiations and said he hoped Putin would attend.
On Wednesday the US leader had said there was a “possibility” he would divert to the country if the Russian president was there. Trump, however, noted that he was scheduled to be in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, on the third and final leg of his Gulf tour. But, when asked about visiting Turkey, he added: “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it to save a lot of lives.”
Brazil and China, which have warm ties with Moscow, also backed talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said he would push Putin to take part in the talks with Zelenskyy. “I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula said, adding that he planned to travel to Moscow. “It costs me nothing to say: ‘Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit.’”
Brazil and China had issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for direct negotiations as the “only way to end the conflict”.
Putin and Zelenskyy have met only once, in 2019, and Moscow has repeatedly portrayed the Ukrainian leader as illegitimate.
In Istanbul, Ukraine is expected to call for a full 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for further talks.
Moscow has consistently rejected extended ceasefire proposals, arguing they would give Ukraine time to rearm and regroup at a moment when Russian forces are advancing on the battlefield.
Russian officials have indicated they will press for maximalist demands in Istanbul, similar to those made during the failed round of talks in Turkey in spring 2022.
European leaders have promised to increase pressure on Russia if the talks in Turkey failed, but the question remains whether they can bring Trump onboard with their efforts to tighten the screws on Moscow.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that there must not be any settlement in Ukraine in the form of a “dictated peace” from Moscow.
Addressing parliament, Merz warned of “militarily created facts against Ukraine’s will”, telling lawmakers it was “of paramount importance that the political West does not allow itself to be divided”.
