Ankara, Türkiye - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that he would send a team led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to the Turkish city of Istanbul for peaceful negotiations with the Russian delegation.
Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Ankara, Türkiye's capital, that the Russian delegation did not include "anyone who actually made the decision".
But he said he had proven to U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine was seeking to end the three-year-old war, and he decided to send officials from Ankara to Istanbul for the meeting.
Their purpose is to "at least try the first step of downgrading, which is the first step to ending the war, a ceasefire."
This is a breaking news update. The early stories of AP are as follows.
Russian President Vladimir Putin left Thursday without being subject to direct peace talks about ending the Ukrainian war, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awaits face-to-face negotiations by Kremlin leaders in Ankara, Turkey's capital.
Due to Putin's absence, the Russian delegation is in Istanbul, more than 400 kilometers (nearly 300 miles) west of Ankara - it's unclear whether the two teams will even hold their first such talks since March 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbors last month.
Zelenskyy said the Russian delegation appeared to be just "drama props" as they trained on the edge of diplomacy in the 3-year-old war with Kiev.
Putin's absence has spurred a breakthrough in peace efforts, driven by recent fierce manipulation by the Trump administration and Western European leaders. It also raises the prospect of intensifying Russian sanctions against Russia under threat from the West.
Zelenskyy said at the Ankara airport that the next steps for talks will be decided after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who welcomed him with the Honor Guard in the presidential palace in Ankara.
"Now, after three years of great pain, there is finally a window of opportunity," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a NATO meeting held in Turkey. "Negotiation... hopefully opens a new chapter."
According to the United Nations, the war has killed tens of thousands of soldiers and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians. Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say Russian troops are preparing for a new military offensive.
At least five civilians have been killed in the past day and 29 injured in the past day, according to authorities in five Ukraine regions where Russian troops are trying to advance.
Diplomatic mobility began on the weekend when European leaders met Zelenskyy in Kiev and urged the Kremlin to agree to a complete, unconditional 30-day ceasefire, the first step towards peace. Putin later responded by proposing direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul. Then Zelenskyy challenged Putin to have a face-to-face conversation.
After several days of silence, the Kremlin finally responded on Thursday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Putin has no plans to travel to Istanbul in the next few days.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Putin has not appeared yet and he is not surprised. Trump urged Putin and Zelensky to meet, but refuted Putin's obvious decision not to participate.
"I don't think Putin can go," Trump told reporters during a meeting with business executives in Doha, Qatar on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.
Trump said a meeting between him and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.
“Whether you like it or not, until (Putin) is with me, I don’t believe anything will happen,” he said in Air Force One, from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. "But we're going to have to solve it because so many people are dying."
Peskov said Putin has no plans to meet with Trump in the next few days.
The Kremlin said Putin's aide Vladimir Medinsky led the Russian team and would also include three other senior officials. Putin also appointed four low-level officials as "experts" for the Istanbul talks.
The talks were also absent from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, both representing Russia in March's talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia.
Ukrainian officials said the top Ukraine delegation included Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Zelenskyy would only sit at the negotiating table with Putin.
Detailed information on when, where, when, and where, is it unclear if the Ukrainian delegation travelled with Russia. Russia said the talks had been postponed until the afternoon "initiative on the Turkish side"
Tas said the negotiations will be held in the presidential office in Bosphorus, Istanbul.
Peskov said Putin met with senior government officials and delegation members on Wednesday night to prepare for the talks. Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and National Security Council Secretary-General Sergei Shoigu also attended the meeting.
The Kremlin's talks on Thursday were a "restart" of peace talks held in Istanbul in 2022, but soon collapsed. Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of the West of wanting to continue fighting, while Kiev said Russia's demand was equivalent to the final ATAM, not something both sides could agree.
The Russian delegation was also led by Medinsky at the time.
Putin's proposal came after Trump launched diplomacy for more than three months. Trump quickly ended the devastating war in his campaign, although it was difficult to achieve it. The Trump administration has shown in recent weeks that it could get rid of peace efforts without tangible progress.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Senator Lindsey Graham on Wednesday night in the Turkish city of Antalya, which chairs NATO foreign ministers to discuss new defense investment targets as the United States shifts its focus to Europe's security challenges.
Sybiha reiterated Ukraine’s support for Trump’s mediation efforts and thanked the United States for its continued participation, urging Moscow to “integrate Ukraine’s constructive steps into peace. “So far, not,” Sibiha said.
Sibiha will also meet with other European foreign ministers on Thursday morning, including his French rival Jean-Noël Barrot, who reiterated the call for a ceasefire in his post on X, threatening to “massive sanctions” if Russia does not comply.
"We are in a very difficult place right now and we hope we can find steps forward in a negotiated way and prevent any war in the future," Rubio said on Thursday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Putin of "standing on the side of peace."
He said during a visit to Tilana in Albania: "Only one country started this conflict - that was Russia. That was Putin. Now there is only one country standing on the side of peace - that is Russia, that is Putin."
Balott responded to this view: “There is an empty chair in front of the Ukrainians that should be occupied by Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Vladimir Putin dragged his feet and did not want to participate in these peace discussions in all the evidence.”
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Associated Press writer Lorne Cook contributed in Brussels; Illia Novikov and Samya Kullab in Kiev, Ukraine; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; Amer Madhani in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Matthew Lee in Antalya, Turkey.
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Follow the AP's report on the war in Ukraine