It’s being reported now that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be at the peace talks in Turkey this week with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is still slated to attend.
Instead, Putin is sending his presidential aide to lead the talks.
Here’s more from the BBC:
Russian President Vladimir Putin is not among the names listed by the Kremlin as due to attend peace talks on the war in Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, despite calls from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for him to attend.
Russia’s delegation will instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to the Kremlin statement.
Zelensky had previously said he would attend the talks and meet Putin in person if the Russian president agreed, and said he would do everything he could to ensure the face-to-face meeting took place.
The Ukrainian president will be in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Putin and Zelensky have not met in person since December 2019. Russia and Ukraine last held direct negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul, shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Fighting has raged in Ukraine since then. Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control over the past year, mostly in the east of Ukraine.
Putin had initially called for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey’s largest city “without pre-conditions”, before Zelensky announced that he would go in person and expected the Russian president to travel as well.
Putin’s suggestion of direct talks in Istanbul followed Western powers’ call for a 30-day ceasefire, after European leaders met in Kyiv on Saturday.
After Trump called for Ukraine to accept the offer on Sunday, Zelensky said he would travel there himself.
“There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post.
Trump pressured Zelenskyy to show up and now Putin is going to be a no-show. Unreal. Trump said today that he wasn’t sure if Putin was actually going to show up, if he weren’t there: