Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Malaysia’s prime minister at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 14 May 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/ALEXANDER NEMENOV / POOL

Vladimir Putin will not be in attendance at what could be the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years in Istanbul on Thursday, the Kremlin has confirmed, despite the Russian leader first proposing the negotiations himself just days ago.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had challenged Putin to attend — with Kyiv stressing that Zelensky would only agree to speak with Putin himself — the Russian delegation that arrived in Istanbul on Thursday morning would instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin said.

Medinsky, the former culture minister who led Moscow’s delegation in abortive talks shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, will be joined by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, according to the Kremlin.

Zelensky, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he would be “waiting” in the capital Ankara after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday, and would decide “which steps Ukraine should take” based on who Russia sent to Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Zelensky said both he and Erdoğan would travel to Istanbul at a moment’s notice should Putin arrive for the talks, but that the Russian leader’s failure to attend would indicate the “final point” that Moscow was not serious about ending the war.

Putin proposed direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv “without preconditions” in an unexpected overnight address on Sunday amid increasing pressure from the US and EU to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but the Kremlin remained non-committal on his personal attendance after Zelensky said he “expected” Putin to join him in Türkiye.

Putin’s refusal to attend the talks came after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attempted to convince him to engage in dialogue with Ukraine in a phone call during a technical stop in Moscow on the way back from a state visit to China on Wednesday.

After the Kremlin confirmed Putin would not be attending, the White House also said that US President Donald Trump would not disrupt his four-day tour of the Middle East to travel to Türkiye, despite Trump previously suggesting there was a “possibility” of him doing so.