Putin Refuses to Meet Zelenskyy in Turkey, Sends Junior Officials Instead
Instead of accepting Zelensky’s call for direct talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has dispatched a team of junior officials to Istanbul, casting doubt over whether negotiations between the two warring nations will proceed at all, The Gaze reports, citing The Wall Street Journal.
The Russian delegation will be led by Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin — the same figures previously tasked with negotiating Ukraine’s surrender in March 2022, during the initial stage of the full-scale invasion. Those talks, also held in Istanbul, collapsed after Russia’s military setbacks and retreat from northern Ukraine.
“Trump needs to believe that Putin actually lies,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday. “We should do our part. Sensibly approach this issue, to show that it’s not us that is slowing down the process.”
President Zelenskyy had previously said he was prepared to meet with Putin in person in Turkey, conditional on the Russian leader’s attendance. But Putin’s decision to send Medinsky — a former culture minister — signals a lack of seriousness, according to Western diplomats, who view the move as a reassertion of Russia’s 2022 demands: the dismantling of Ukraine’s sovereignty and defense capability.
Senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, and national security adviser Keith Kellogg, are expected to arrive in Istanbul by Friday. The Ukrainian side has made clear it will only meet with the Russian delegation to discuss the implementation and monitoring of an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by the Trump administration — a plan Kyiv accepted in March, but which Putin has so far ignored.
Putin, Western diplomats say, continues to press for Ukraine’s capitulation, even as Russian forces have failed to achieve significant territorial gains. Over ten years of fighting, Russia has acquired less than 1% of Ukrainian territory, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties and enormous equipment losses.
As the Ankara meetings proceed without a direct Russian-Ukrainian presidential exchange, many fear the moment for a breakthrough may again be slipping away — with Moscow content to stall, and Washington still searching for a diplomatic win.
As The Gaze reported earlier, European foreign ministers issued a united call for peace in Ukraine on Monday, with several top diplomats urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage seriously in negotiations.
Zelenskyy has said that he does not believe that Putin will be brave enough to come to Istanbul for direct talks with him, although he does not completely rule out this possibility.
Read more on the Gaze: Next 10–15 Days Could Be Decisive for Peace in Ukraine, Says NATO Chief Rutte