Ukraine’s Zelensky arrives for peace talks but Russia’s Putin stays away

Russian president Vladimir Putin did not show up in Turkey on Thursday for proposed direct peace talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was waiting for him in the capital of Ankara after challenging the Kremlin leader to face-to-face discussions on ending their three-year-old war.

With Mr Putin absent, the Russian delegation was in Istanbul and it was not clear whether the sides would meet for their first such talks since March 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour the previous month.

Mr Zelensky said the Russian delegation appeared to be merely “a theatre prop”.

Speaking at the airport in Ankara, he said the next steps for talks would be decided after his upcoming meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who welcomed Mr Zelensky with an honour guard at the presidential palace in Ankara.

Mr Putin’s absence punctured hopes of a breakthrough in peace efforts that were given a push in recent months by the Trump administration and western European leaders.

It also raised the prospect of intensified international sanctions on Russia that have been threatened by the West.

“Now, after three years of immense suffering, there is finally a window of opportunity,” Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said at a Nato meeting taking place separately in Turkey.

“The talks … hopefully may open a new chapter,” he said.

The war has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the UN, and continues along the roughly 620-mile (1,000km) front line.

Russian forces are preparing a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and western military analysts say.

At least five civilians were killed and 29 injured in the past day, according to authorities in five eastern regions of Ukraine where Russia’s army is trying to advance.

The diplomatic manoeuvring began over the weekend when European leaders met Mr Zelensky in Kyiv and urged the Kremlin to agree to a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire as a first step towards peace.

Mr Putin later responded by proposing direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul.

Then came Mr Zelensky’s challenge to Mr Putin to hold face-to-face talks.

After days of silence, the Kremlin finally responded on Thursday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Mr Putin had no plans to travel to Istanbul in the next few days.

US president Donald Trump said he was not surprised that Mr Putin was a no-show.

Mr Trump had pressed for Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy to meet but brushed off Mr Putin’s apparent decision not to attend.

“I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there,” Mr Trump told reporters as he took part in a business roundtable with executives in Doha, Qatar, on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.

Mr Trump said a meeting between himself and Mr Putin was crucial to break the deadlock.

“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen whether you like it or not, until (Putin) and I get together,” he said on Air Force One while travelling from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

“But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”

Mr Peskov said Mr Putin had no plans to meet Mr Trump in the coming days.

Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Mr Putin, is leading the Russian team that will also include three other senior officials, the Kremlin said.

Mr Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as “experts” for the talks in Istanbul.

Also absent from the talks were Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Mr Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, both of whom represented Russia at the talks with the US in Saudi Arabia in March.

The top-level Ukrainian delegation included defence minister Rustem Umerov, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, and the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak, a Ukrainian official said.

Mr Zelensky will sit at the negotiating table only with Mr Putin, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Details about whether, when and where the Ukrainian delegation might meet their Russian counterparts were unclear.

Russia said the talks had been postponed until the afternoon “at the initiative of the Turkish side”.

Russian news agency Tass said the talks were to take place in a presidential office on the Bosporus, in Istanbul.

The Kremlin billed Thursday’s talks as a “restart” of peace negotiations that were held in Istanbul in 2022 but quickly fell apart.

Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of wanting to continue fighting, while Kyiv said Russia’s demands amounted to an ultimatum rather than something both sides could agree on.

Mr Putin’s proposal came after more than three months of diplomacy kickstarted by Mr Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the devastating war swiftly — although it has been hard to pull off.

The Trump administration in recent weeks indicated that it might walk away from the peace effort if there was no tangible progress soon.

Mr Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, met with US state secretary Marco Rubio and senator Lindsey Graham on Wednesday night in the Turkish city of Antalya, which is hosting Nato foreign ministers to discuss new defence investment goals as the US shifts its focus to security challenges away from Europe.