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Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he will not travel to Turkey to take part in talks between Moscow and Kyiv on Thursday, despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend.
White House officials said that US President Donald Trump will also not go to Turkey for the talks after Putin announced the list of Russian attendees, all of whom are relatively low-level officials.
Putin first proposed holding direct talks between Russia and Ukraine — “without preconditions” — last Sunday, in response to a demand from Ukraine’s western allies for a 30-day ceasefire in the war. He said the negotiations would be held on Thursday in Turkey.
Putin said the purpose of the talks would be “to remove the root causes of the conflict and move towards creating a long-term, durable peace in a historical perspective”.
Zelenskyy said he was willing to attend, but only if Putin also showed up, because “everything in Russia depends” on the Russian leader.
“So I said that on [Thursday] I will go to Turkey and I’m ready to meet Putin and an end to the war was through direct talks with him,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv.
Trump had hailed Putin’s initiative, describing it as a “potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine”. The president, who is currently on an official visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, had also said he might make a detour to Turkey to attend the talks.
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