Putin not named in Kremlin’s delegation for Russia-Ukraine peace talks

MOSCOW – The Kremlin left President Vladimir Putin off its list for talks in Turkey on May 15 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, instead naming a lower-level team for the first direct Russia-Ukraine meetings on their conflict in more than three years.

Mr Zelensky had challenged Mr Putin to meet him in person at the talks, with US President Donald Trump also appearing to urge the Kremlin leader to come to the negotiating table.

The Istanbul negotiations would be the first direct peace talks since discussions in the first weeks of the conflict broke down without a deal.

After days of declining to say if Mr Putin would go, the Kremlin named its negotiating team late on May 14.

The Russian side will be headed by Mr Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Mr Putin and former culture minister who was involved in 2022 negotiations.

Mr Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov – who had all been rumoured as top negotiators after leading previous talks with the United States – were not named in the delegation.

Mr Zelensky said this week that Mr Putin’s absence would be a clear signal that he was not genuinely interested in peace.

“I am waiting to see who will arrive from Russia. Then I will decide what steps Ukraine should take,” Mr Zelensky said on May 14.

Trump ‘possibility’

Mr Trump on May 14 offered to go to Turkey if Mr Putin also showed up.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Istanbul on May 16 for part of the talks.

Mr Medinsky is seen as influential in advancing Russia’s historical claims over swathes of Ukraine and has written textbooks advancing a nationalist view of Russian history that has been questioned by independent historians.

The other three negotiators were named as Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Mr Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

Mr Putin last weekend proposed direct negotiations and had come under intense international pressure – including from some allies – to meet Mr Zelensky.

Mr Trump floated the idea of mediating if Mr Putin attended.

“I don’t know that he (Putin) would be there if I’m not there,” Mr Trump told reporters while on his Middle East tour.

“I know he would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. If we could end the war, I’d be thinking about that,” he said.

Mr Trump said he had a packed schedule, but added: “That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it to save a lot of lives.”

‘His war’

Mr Zelensky said this week that Mr Putin skipping the talks would signal an unwillingness to seek peace and should be met with massive Western sanctions and more military aid for Kyiv.

“This is his war,” Mr Zelensky said on May 13. “Therefore, the negotiations should be with him.”

Mr Trump took office vowing to quickly end the conflict, but has voiced frustration with both Ukraine and Russia over the lack of progress.

Moscow has in recent weeks snubbed several calls, backed by Ukraine, for an initial 30-day ceasefire.

Despite the prospect of talks, the two sides’ positions on how the fighting should end remain far apart and there have been few signs that either is willing to make concessions.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who in the past criticised the level of Western support for Ukraine, urged Mr Putin to attend in person in a phone call on May 14, his office said.

“It costs me nothing to say, ‘hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit’,” Mr Lula said ahead of the call.

European leaders also pressed Mr Putin to travel to Turkey.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on May 14 that there must not be any settlement on Ukraine in the form of a “dictated peace” from Moscow.

Addressing Parliament, Mr Merz warned of “militarily created facts against Ukraine’s will”, telling lawmakers it was “of paramount importance that the political West does not allow itself to be divided”.

Amid preparations for the talks, fighting continued to rage. A Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Sumy killed at least three people on May 14, Ukrainian officials said. AFP