Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sent a delegation to Istanbul to conduct peaceful negotiations with Russia, paving the way for the first direct negotiations between the two countries since March 2022 - although Washington warned that a breakthrough may not be made unless Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree to a meeting.

Negotiations are scheduled to begin on Friday, and Zelenskyy said Kiev will focus on an immediate ceasefire.

Speaking at a press conference in the Turkish capital Ankara after meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Zelenskyy said that even if Russia had sent a low-level team, he decided to send a delegation to show that Ukraine remains firmly committed to the pursuit of war.

"Unfortunately, the negotiations (Russians) are not serious enough... Out of respect for President Trump and Erdogan, I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul immediately," Zelenskyy said.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to take place in Istanbul on Friday, although it's unclear what role they will play.

Negotiations will be held at the Dormabach Palace on the European coast of Bosphorus, which held tasteless negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in 2022.

The highly anticipated day on Thursday fell into chaos early, with Ukrainian and Russian delegations arriving in separate cities hundreds of miles apart, immediately doubting whether they would meet.

The Kremlin announced Wednesday night that Putin would skip the negotiations, rejecting Zelenskyy's bold proposal for a face-to-face meeting to discuss peace.

It is imminent that Trump, who raises doubts about the value of any negotiations that would not involve him and the Russian president. "Nothing will happen until Putin and I get together," he told reporters on Air Force One.

Rubio told reporters late Thursday in response to Trump: "I think it's clear that we have the only way to make a breakthrough between President Trump and President Putin." He said any meeting between the two depends on progress this week.

The remarks will curb hopes Trump is ready to impose tough sanctions in Kiev and its European allies, and he will have the chance to meet Putin if the current negotiations collapse - in fact, Moscow has little incentive to compromise in Türkiye.

Speaking during his stop in Qatar before heading to the UAE, Trump advised that he might still be heading to Türkiye on Friday, "if something happens." But by nightfall, there was little sign that any last-minute summit involving the U.S. president was ongoing.

Zelenskyy and Putin are both manipulating themselves in front of Trump with increasingly impatient Trump, increasingly impatient with the speed of negotiations, and each leader sees each other as the main obstacle to progress.

"I believe that the most important thing about Ukraine is to remain constructive and reasonable. That's why we are sending a delegation led by the Ministry of Defense - so no one can claim that Ukraine is responsible for derailment," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy traveled to Ankara on Thursday with his closest aide, while Russia's intermediate delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, an ultra-conservative who landed in Istanbul earlier that day, where hundreds of journalists camped there for hours and waited for hours without a successful start.

Throughout the meeting in Ankara, Zelenskyy tried to make the Russian choice delegation choose framework to show that Moscow did not negotiate in good faith. He told reporters that the Russian delegation arriving in Istanbul did not include "the person who actually made the decision", accusing Moscow of not working hard to end the war seriously.

Zelenskyy said: "I am unhappy with Russia. When asked if the Russian president avoided meeting him directly, he added: "We can't look for Putin around the world. ”

But so far, there is little evidence that Trump accepted Zelensky's guilty plea, and U.S. leaders refused to criticize the Russian delegation on Thursday.

Putin's decision not to send to his two top diplomats, Yuri Ushakov and Sergei Lavrov, both seem to break the hope of any major breakthrough.

Observers said that by appointing former Culture Minister Medinsky to lead the delegation, Putin said he was not interested in real compromise and remained committed to the same goal he pursued in 2022: depriving Ukraine of sovereignty and military capabilities.

Medinsky also led the failed peace talks in March 2022, holding a hastily arranged press conference at the Russian consulate in Istanbul. He described the current negotiations as a continuation of those early negotiations, which included comprehensive requirements such as limiting Ukraine's armed forces and preventing reconstruction through Western support. It is unacceptable for Kyiv to repeatedly reject these terms.

Medesky also responded to a dilapidated Kremlin conversation point, saying Russia aims to resolve the “root cause” of the war – a sentence that Putin often uses to justify the invasion.

Boris Bondarev, a former senior Russian diplomat who resigned after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said: "Putin obviously does not want any real peace negotiations and no ceasefire unless it is fully on his terms."

Bondruff said Putin proposed talks in Türkiye to convince Trump that he was committed to peace, while he still intends to continue fighting locally.

As Russian troops make slow but steady progress on the battlefield, Putin (seemingly confident that Russia can surpass Ukraine) refuses to stop fighting before he can get major offers from Kiev and the West.

Even before Moscow and Kiev met in Istanbul, Zelenskyy and Ukraine's European allies were urging the United States to impose new sanctions if both sides disagree with the ceasefire.

"Without a ceasefire, no bilateral meeting, we demand that sanctions end the war faster," Zelenskyy said. "We want strong sanctions on Russia from the United States, European countries - pressure from the global south must come from.

"Trump's position is to put pressure on both sides. I believe we are under greater pressure," Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine "showed the willingness to negotiate step by step."

"You have to put pressure on the side that doesn't want to end the war," he said.