By Mehmet Guzel, Hanna Arhirova and Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
Ankara, Turkey (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear on Thursday for direct peace talks in Turkey with the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was waiting for Putin in the capital Ankara after having challenged him face to face at the end of the war of their country.
With Putin absent, the Russian delegation was in Istanbul and it was not clear if the parties would meet for their first talks since March 2022, after the large -scale invasion of his neighbor’s Russia the previous month.
Zelenskyy said the Russian delegation seemed to be simply “decorative”. Speaking at the Turkish capital airport, Ankara, he said that the next steps for talks would be decided after his next meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93xka6bzdwww
The absence of Putin has performed the hopes of a breakthrough in the peace efforts received in recent months by the Trump administration and the leaders of Western Europe. He also raised the prospect of an intensification of international sanctions against Russia which were threatened by American and European leaders.
“Now, after three years of immense suffering, there is finally a window of opportunity,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at a NATO meeting taking place separately in Turkey. “The talks … let’s hope it will open a new chapter.”
The war of attrition killed tens of thousands of soldiers and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the UN, and continues along the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Russian forces are also preparing to launch a new military offensive, the Ukrainian government and Western military analysts.
The Kremlin never gave an answer to the Zelenskyy Sunday challenge. This challenge occurred after Putin offered direct talks with Ukraine.
Zelenskyy will only stay at the table with Putin, the presidential advisor to Ukraine, Mykhailo Podolyak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvjygkw7zm
President Donald Trump said he was not surprised that Putin was a non-presentation. Trump had pressed that Putin and Zelenskyy meet, but had defeated Putin’s apparent decision not to attend.
“I did not think that it was possible for Putin to leave if I am not there,” said Trump in an exchange with journalists while he was participating in a round table with Doha leaders, in Qatar, the third day of his visit to the Middle East.
Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin assistant, heads the Russian team who will also include three other senior officials, said the Kremlin. Putin also appointed four lower level officials as “experts” for talks in Istanbul.
The high -level Ukrainian delegation also included the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha, and the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak, said a Ukrainian official.
Details on the question of whether, when and where the Ukrainian delegation could answer their Russian counterparts was not clear. Russia said that talks had been postponed until the afternoon “on the initiative of the Turkish team”
Tass said the talks should take place in a presidential office on the Bosporus in Istanbul.
Moscow gave conferences instead of a ceasefire
On Wednesday evening, Putin held a meeting with senior government officials and members of the delegation in preparation for talks, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, chief of staff Gerasimov, and the secretary of the National Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, attended the meeting, among others.
Kyiv and its European allies had urged the Kremlin to accept a complete and unconditional cease-fire of 30 days as the first step towards peace. Putin rather offered direct talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The Kremlin presented the talks on Thursday as a “restart” of the peace negotiations which took place in Istanbul in 2022 but which quickly collapsed. Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of wanting to continue to fight, while Kyiv said that Russia’s requests appropriated an ultimatum rather than something on both parties.
The delegation of Russia was then also led by Medinsky.
Putin’s proposal occurred after more than three months of diplomacy with Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the devastating war quickly. The Trump administration in recent weeks has indicated that it could move away from the peace effort if there was no tangible progress soon.
Ukraine supports Trump’s peace efforts
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha met the American secretary of the State Marco Rubio and Senator Lindsey Graham in the Turkish city of Antalya on Wednesday evening. Antalya Thursday welcomes NATO Foreign Affairs to discuss new defense investment objectives while the United States focuses on the challenges of security far from Europe.
Sybiha reaffirmed Ukraine’s support for Trump’s mediation efforts and thanked the United States for its continuous involvement, urging Moscow to “make the constructive stages of Ukraine” to peace. “So far, this is not the case,” said Sybiha.
Thursday morning, Sybiha also met with other European foreign ministers, including his French counterpart Jean-No-Noël Barrot, who, in a position on X, reiterated the call to a ceasefire and the threat of “massive sanctions” if Russia does not comply.
“We are in a very difficult place at the moment, and we hope that we can find the stages that predict the end of this war in a negotiated manner and the prevention of any war in the future,” said Rubio on Thursday.
Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen, also in Antalya for NATO talks, accused Moscow of not being prepared in a serious peace process.
“We have an empty chair, which is the president of Vladimir Putin. So now, I suppose that the whole world has realized that there is only one part that does not want to engage in serious peace negotiations, and it is certainly Russia,” said Valtonen.
Barrot echoes his feeling: “In front of the Ukrainians, there is an empty chair, which should have been occupied by Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Vladimir Putin drags his feet and, in all the evidence, does not want to enter these discussions on peace.”
The writers of the associated press Lorne Cook in Brussels; Illia Novikov and Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; And Matthew Lee in Antalya, Turkey contributed to this report.
Originally published:
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