Russian and Ukrainian delegations are set to hold negotiations in Istanbul on Friday, which will mark the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since 2022.
Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, will lead the Russian side, and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will head the Ukrainian delegation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been calling for Putin to travel to Istanbul, but said on Thursday that Ukraine would still participate in the lower-level talks. He made the comments in the Turkish capital of Ankara, where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Despite the rather low level of the Russian delegation, out of respect for President Trump, for the high-level Turkish delegation and President Erdogan, and wishing to attempt at least the first steps toward de-escalation and an end to the war, I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul — though not in full,” Zelensky said while in Ankara, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
According to Anadolu, there will be a series of meetings on Friday, including trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also expected to be in Istanbul and will likely attend talks between the US, Ukraine, and Turkey.
President Trump said on Thursday that while he welcomes the diplomacy, he doesn’t expect real progress until he meets with Putin. “Look, nothing is gonna happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters.
The president said he didn’t expect Putin to show up to the talks unless he was there. “He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything will happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we are gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying,” he said.
Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022. At the time, Russia’s main demand was for Ukrainian neutrality. Those efforts were discouraged by the Biden administration, and later that year, Russia declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts and added the recognition of that territory as part of Russia to its demands to end the war.
