Cliff Notes – Putin not listed in Russian delegation for talks with Ukraine in Turkey and Trump also not attending
- Vladimir Putin is absent from the Russian delegation attending ceasefire talks in Turkey, with junior officials representing Russia instead of top negotiators.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has indicated he will attend only if Putin participates, expressing doubts about Russia’s commitment to peace.
- US President Donald Trump will not join the talks, despite initially considering attendance if Putin was present.
Putin not listed in Russian delegation for talks with Ukraine in Turkey – and Trump also not attending
Vladimir Putin has not been listed in a Russian delegation expected to head to Turkey for ceasefire talks on Thursday with Ukraine.
The Russian president signed an order on Wednesday detailing who would be in the group to Istanbul, including presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy foreign minister Galuzin Mikhail Yuryevich, and deputy minister of defence Alexander Fomin.
On Sunday, Mr Putin had proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine over the war, to be held on Thursday “without any preconditions”, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had called on the Russian president to meet him in Istanbul.
Donald Trump will not go to Turkey to join the Russia-Ukraine talks either, a US official confirmed after Mr Putin announced the Russian delegation. The US president had said he was “thinking” of going to Turkey if Mr Putin would be there.
Mr Zelenskyy was on his way to the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday night, a senior Ukrainian official told Reuters.
The Ukrainian president had said he would attend the talks in Istanbul, but only if Mr Putin also attended.
“I am waiting to see who will arrive from Russia and then I will determine what steps Ukraine should take. The signals in the media so far are unconvincing,” he said in his nightly video address earlier.
He said Mr Putin “continues to strike Ukraine”, adding: “In fact, it is now more obvious to the entire world than at any other point during the full-scale war… that the only obstacle to establishing peace is the lack of a clear will from Russia to do so.”
Putin likes to be unpredictable and own the agenda
Vladimir Medinsky, Mikhail Galuzin, Igor Kostyukov, Alexander Fomin – if those names don’t mean anything to you, that is very much the point.
This is not Vladimir Putin’s top team. It is not his veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov or negotiating heavyweight Yuri Ushakov.
Instead, this is a much more junior contingent, which will make up Russia’s delegation at the talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday.
It is an attempt, I think, to humiliate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s been saying all week that he will be waiting for Mr Putin in Turkey.
But the Kremlin leader isn’t someone who takes kindly to ultimatums or the demands of others. He likes to be the one in charge, and publishing a list like this, at the 11th hour, is an expression of power. He won’t be pushed around.
Although Mr Putin’s name is not on the list, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not going. The chatter on Telegram late on Wednesday was that the talks might be extended into a second day and the Russian president may show on Friday.
We simply don’t know at this stage. But what we do know is Mr Putin likes to be unpredictable. He likes to own the agenda. Keeping everyone guessing is a way of doing just that.
The proposed meeting came after the “coalition of the willing” countries, including Britain, threatened Russia with fresh sanctions if it failed to take part in a 30-day ceasefire beginning on Monday.
Russia effectively rejected the proposal by instead calling for direct negotiations in Istanbul with Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War said Russia is “attempting to prolong negotiations to extract additional concessions from the United States and while making additional battlefield advances”.