Putin sacks chief of Russia's land forces

Yahoo

15-05-2025

Vladimir Putin has sacked the chief of Russia's military land forces, General Oleg Salyukov, according to a decree published by the Kremlin.
It comes just one week after Salyukov, 70, led Russia's Victory Day military parade on May 9 in Moscow.
It is the latest removal of a high-profile figure from Russia's military establishment amid its offensive on Ukraine.
Salyukov, who took up his post in 2014, will now work as a deputy to ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed from his post last year and made Secretary of the Security Council.
Mr Shoigu was sacked in May last year in part due to Russia's inability to take Ukraine in the early days of Putin's invasion, when soldiers were being sent into battle with inadequate training and defective weapons.
The Security Council is the Kremlin's top consultative body, chaired by Putin, and is responsible for managing and integrating national security policy. It does not have direct authority over Russia's security agencies and ministries.
Salyukov had been in charge of Russia's land forces since 2014, overseeing involvement in the Syrian civil war and the offensive on Ukraine. He was a deputy head of the general staff for four years before that.
The decision came as officials from both Russia and Ukraine gathered for talks in Istanbul. Putin sent a low-level delegation, while Volodymyr Zelensky opted to send his defence minister after the Russian president failed to show.
The Kremlin has denied that the arrests and sackings in Russia's top brass were a purge of the military establishment following setbacks in Ukraine.
Thanks for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Here's a look ahead to what we can expect next.
Ukraine and Russia are set to hold their first direct peace talks in more than three years ti
Volodymyr Zelensky had travelled to Turkey but said he would not attend the talks, after Vladimir Putin declined his calls for face-to-face negotiations.
The meeting was initially planned for Thursday but Mr Zelensky said 'it could be today, it could be tomorrow'.
The Russian side is headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Putin and ex-culture minister who was involved in the 2022 negotiations.
Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Istanbul on Friday 'for meetings with European counterparts to discuss the conflict in Ukraine'.
We'll be back soon with more live updates.
Donald Trump said he would 'probably' fly back to Washington tomorrow despite calls for him to join negotiations in Turkey.
'We'll be leaving tomorrow,' the US president told reporters.
'It's almost 'destination unknown'. We're getting calls, 'could you be here? Could you be there?' But we're probably going back to Washington DC.'
Vladimir Putin has sacked the chief of Russia's military land forces, General Oleg Salyukov, according to a decree published by the Kremlin.
It is the latest removal of a high-profile figure from Russia's military establishment amid its offensive on Ukraine.
Salyukov, 70, will now work as a deputy to ex-defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who was removed from his post last year and made Secretary of the Security Council.
Vladimir Putin 'personally disrespected' Donald Trump by sending such a 'low-level' delegation to peace talks in Istanbul, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
'I believe the US and Turkey, they feel Russia's disrespect, in my opinion,' Mr Zelensky told a press conference in Ankara.
'No meeting time, no agenda, no high-level delegation, that is personal disrespect…to Erdogan and Trump. Trump sent a big team of people.'
The Ukrainian president decided to skip negotiations in Turkey after his Russian counterpart refused to show, and will instead send his defence minister to meet the Russian delegation in Istanbul.
It came after Donald Trump said there will be no peace in Ukraine until he meets with Putin.
'I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,' the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
Marco Rubio, who is currently in Antalya, has said the US did not have high expectations for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The US secretary of state said the best chance of a breakthrough was a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
'It's my assessment that I don't think we're going to have a breakthrough here until the President (Trump) and President Putin interact directly on this topic,' Mr Rubio said.
'I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm 100% wrong,' he added. 'I hope the news tomorrow morning is there's a ceasefire. But it's not my assessment.'
It has just gone 7pm in Istanbul on a day that might have been among the most consequential in recent diplomatic history.
A meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, in the grand setting of the Dolmabahçe Palace overlooking the Bosphorus, would have had shades of that other famous get-together in Ukraine 80 years ago: The Yalta Conference of 1945.
But instead of an encounter that could have shaped the future of Europe, the world has instead spent the day playing 'Where's Vladimir'. The Russian president, it turned out, was busy meeting the head of one of the country's banks and dealing with 'non-public matters'. The Kremlin says he has spent a 'calm' day.
You might have thought Putin's failure to show up at the very talks he had insisted on calling in lieu of the 30-day ceasefire Mr Trump had demanded might have irked the US president.
That was clearly what Mr Zelensky hoped when he accused Putin of showing 'personal disrespect' to the American leader. 'We can't be running around the world looking for Putin,' he added in exasperation.
European leaders were also confident that Mr Trump's patience must surely finally have run out. Johann Wadephul, Germany's brand new foreign minister, declared that there was now full agreement with the US on the need for much more draconian sanctions, declaring 'the USA and Europe are on the same page.'
Yet any expectations of a change in tone were swiftly dashed, with Mr Trump resolutely refusing to issue even the mildest criticism of his Russian counterpart.
'I'm not disappointed,' he said. 'Why would I be disappointed? Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay!'
Mr Trump, having expressed his hopes just 24 hours earlier that both he and Putin would be in Istanbul today, seemed to regard the idea that the Russian president might have attended the talks as ridiculous. 'Obviously he wasn't going to go,' he said.
When the two get together is anyone's guess. So what happens in the meantime? Not a lot, by all accounts. Mr Zelensky has poured scorn on the Russian delegation led by Vladimir Medinsky, the former culture minister, as 'low-level' and 'decorative'.
Mr Medinsky's team insist they are there to negotiate, but have made it clear they intend to take as their starting point the Istanbul Communiqué issued after aborted talks in the same city two years ago. Given that this required Ukraine to abandon its Nato ambitions and accept neutrality in exchange for international security guarantees that could be vetoed at any time by Russia, it hardly seems the most encouraging basis for a breakthrough.
Time is running out for anything to get underway today, but even if there is a preliminary meeting, there seems little reason for optimism that an end to Ukraine's war is in sight.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is expected to address journalists in Antalya after a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Turkey.
The UK's defence secretary said that Ukraine's allies 'need to act, we need to put pressure on Putin' after the Russian leader failed to show for talks in Istanbul.
Speaking after a meeting with German counterpart Boris Pistorius in Berlin, John Healey urged further sanctions on Russia, adding: 'We need to put pressure on Putin that helps bring him to the negotiating table.'
Moscow sees today's talks with Ukraine as a 'continuation' of failed negotiations in 2022 at the start of its invasion, Russia's delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said this afternoon.
Mr Medinsky insisted the Kremlin had the 'necessary competencies' for the the negotiations and said Russia was willing to make compromises.
'We consider these talks as the continuation of the Istanbul peace process that was unfortunately broken off by the Ukrainian side,' he told reporters, adding that Russia's delegation will 'look for possible solutions and points of contact'.
Away from potential peace negotiations in Turkey, life goes on in Kyiv, where a Ukrainian child has been pictured walking past a destroyed Russian tank in the centre of Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky's press conference in Ankara has now ended.
Here's what we learnt:
The Ukrainian president confirmed he would not attend peace talks in Ankara, instead opting to send his defence minister after Putin's snub
He reiterated that he would hold talks with Putin, telling his Russian counterpart: 'I am here'
He called on more sanctions to be imposed on Russia after Putin's no-show
Mr Zelensky said that Ukraine's priority was a ceasefire, in contrast to Russia wanting to address the 'root causes' of the war
Volodymyr Zelensky has once again told Vladimir Putin that he is ready for direct negotiations.
'Unfortunately, they are not serious enough about the negotiations,' the Ukrainian president told reporters in Ankara, before appealing to Putin: 'I am here, we are ready for direct negotiations.'
Mr Zelensky later said that a meeting with Putin may not be necessary if their respective delegations agree a ceasefire during talks in Istanbul today.
The Ukrainian president told a press conference in Ankara that if Moscow failed to show any willingness to engage in ceasefire talks, more sanctions should be imposed.
'Russia does not feel that it needs to end (the war), which means there is not enough political, economic and other pressure on the Russian Federation,' Mr Zelensky said.
'And so we ask, if there is no ceasefire, if there are no serious decisions ... we ask for appropriate sanctions.'
Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin 'disrespected' Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan by sending such a 'low-level' delegation for peace talks in Istanbul.
The Ukrainian president pointed out that Mr Trump had sent high-level officials, including Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.
Russia is ready to compromise in peace talks with Ukraine, Putin's top negotiator has said while Zelensky speaks in Ankara.
'We are ready to work, to resume the Istanbul talks. We are ready for possible compromises, to discuss them,' Vladimir Medinsky said on state TV.
Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend peace talks in Istanbul after Vladimir Putin refused to travel to Turkey.
The Ukrainian president is now addressing world media in Ankara after a meeting with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mr Zelensky will instead send his Rustem Umerov, his defence minister, to meet the Russian delegation in Istanbul.
Volodymyr Zelensky has begun addressing world media.
We'll bring you updates as they come in.
Volodymyr Zelensky will not travel to Istanbul for peace talks after Vladimir Putin decided not to attend, AFP reported.
The Ukrainian president has just finished a meeting with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He will decide on who to send to address the Russian delegation currently in Istanbul, before addressing world media in a press conference.
The stark differences between Russia and Ukraine's negotiating position are on full display as delegates from both countries are set to meet for talks in Istanbul today.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said there could be no conversation about a ceasefire until talks addressed the 'root causes' of the conflict, which is largely understood to reference Ukraine's ambition to join Nato.
Ukraine, on the other hand, is reportedly only preparing for negotiations on how a ceasefire could be agreed and implemented.
We have more comments from Donald Trump, who addressed the war in Ukraine before landing in Abu Dhabi for the final leg of his Middle East tour.
'Look, nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together. Okay?' Mr Trump said.
'And obviously he wasn't going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go.
'He wasn't going if I wasn't there and I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.'
Sir Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of 'dragging his feet' after the Russian president failed to show for peace talks in Turkey.
Speaking in Tirana, Albania, the Prime Minister was asked what his message was for Putin.
'It is Putin who is causing the delay in a ceasefire,' he responded.
'Ukraine has long been clear, several months ago now, that they would have a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, and we have long said that it's Putin who is standing in the way of that peace.'
Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of sending a 'dummy delegation' to peace talks in Istanbul, after Putin failed to show up.
The Ukrainian president described the Russian negotiators as low ranking, and said their mandate was unclear.
In a sharp response, Russia described Mr Zelensky as a 'clown' and a 'loser.'
Donald Trump has downplayed Vladimir Putin's no-show at peace talks in Istanbul.
The US president, who pressed Putin to attend, said he was not possible for his Russian counterpart to attend without him going first.
'I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there,' Mr Trump told reporters in Doha.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara.
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation sent to Istanbul, said Moscow was aiming for a 'long-term peace' in the first direct peace talks with Ukraine for more than three years.
'The purpose of the direct talks proposed by Putin is to establish long-term and lasting peace by eliminating the root causes of the conflict,' Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline Kremlin aide, wrote on Telegram.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, said that that a potential meeting between the US and Russian presidents did not directly depend on progress regarding a Ukraine peace deal.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations may hold direct talks in Istanbul on Thursday afternoon.
Donald Trump has signalled he could travel to the city on Friday if meaningful progress is made. Volodymyr Zelensky is in Ankara, where he said he is waiting for Putin.
Russia's foreign minister called Volodymyr Zelensky 'pathetic' for demanding that Vladimir Putin attend peace talks in Istanbul that the Russian president proposed himself.
'At first Zelensky made some kind of statements that demanded Putin come personally. Well, a pathetic person,' Sergei Lavrov said in a televised address to diplomats in Moscow.
Credit: Reuters
Russia called Volodymyr Zelensky a 'clown' and a 'loser' after the Ukrainian leader slammed the officials Moscow sent to Turkey for talks as a 'dummy delegation'.
'Who uses the word 'dummy'? A clown? A loser? Someone with no education whatsoever,' Maria Zakharova, foreign ministry spokesman, said in Moscow.
The status of the talks and whether they will still go ahead is unclear.
Credit: Reuters
After landing in the capital of Ankara, Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the Russian delegation dispatched to Istanbul, calling them 'stand-in props'.
'Officially, I'm not aware of the Russian's level [of representation]. But from what we've seen they look like stand-in props,' the Ukrainian leader told reporters on the tarmac.
Moscow had earlier confirmed Vladimir Putin would not attend the high-level talks. Mr Zelensky said the Russian delegation sent in his place was merely 'decorative'.
Sources on the ground in Istanbul say the initial meetings have been pushed back until after lunch, as Volodymyr Zelensky meets Turkey's Erdogan in Ankara.The American delegation are not expected to arrive until tomorrow, with Marco Rubio, the state secretary, currently attending a meeting of Nato ministers in Antalya.
Russia's foreign ministry has confirmed the delay, saying that 'on the initiative of the Turkish side', the talks would take place 'in the second half' of Thursday
Ukraine has not given a time for the highly-anticipated negotiations.
Putin is not going to attend peace talks in Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
It follows the Kremlin late on Wednesday releasing a list of names of its delegation, which did not include the Russian president, that sparked Donald Trump to abandon his plans to travel to Istanbul.
What could have been a historic day has been plunged into chaos.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, has flown to the Turkish capital of Ankara.
In Istanbul, the city due to host the peace talks, the Russians claim they will meet the Ukrainians at the Dolmabache Palace.
This has been ostensibly denied by officials in Kyiv.
Despite this, a media scrum has built up in anticipation for the arrival of the delegations.
One Turkish official told the Telegraph that there was a quiet sense of optimism that Mr Zelensky and Putin would meet.
'Anything can happen in this world,' they smirked.
Donald Trump, who is still on his tour of the Middle East, has once again flirted with jetting into Istanbul, claiming Putin will only travel if he attends the talks.
Germany has low expectations of a breakthrough in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, but is holding onto hopes according to a senior MP from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's party.
Norbert Roettgen, a senior Christian Democrats [CDU] MP, said it was hard to be optimistic about the latest round of talks as Berlin suspects Russia just wants to continue the war.
'You must always have hope, but here there is not justified hope because [Vladimir] Putin wants to continue this war,' he told Politico Berlin.
Johann Wadephul, the new German foreign minister, is also in Istanbul today to take part in a Nato meeting.
What would it mean for Russia, if the United States really did launch 'harder' sanctions 'than we've ever seen before' against its economy?
That was the threat issued by Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine, in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
Lt Gen Kellogg said Vladimir Putin had been warned that drastic new US sanctions were ready to go, should he come to be seen as the main obstacle to peace.
European leaders would act in tandem with the president, he said, having had a 'good phone call' on the subject last week.
It remains the overwhelming likelihood that, come the talks in Istanbul, Putin fails to engage in anything but prevarication. He is not expected to attend in person.
There are three meetings in three Turkish cities taking place today.
To add to the confusion, there has still been no word on when the expected Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul will start or where they will take place.
Reporters rushed to Dolmabahce Palace, following reports in Russian state media, only to find that no officials turned up. It is not even clear the Ukrainian delegation has arrived in the city.
Right now, Volodymyr Zelensky is heading to the capital of Ankara to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, before deciding whether to take part in the Kyiv-Moscow talks. If they go ahead, they will be the first of their kind since March 2022.
Meanwhile, in Turkey's southern resort city of Antalya, a meeting of Nato's ministers is taking place. On its sidelines, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, just met with Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, to discuss peace efforts.
Donald Trump said on Thursday he would go to Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey on Friday 'if it is appropriate'.
'I was thinking about going, but it is very tough... If something happened I would go on Friday if it was appropriate,' Mr Trump said in Doha on the third day of his tour of the Gulf.
'But we have people right now negotiating, I just hope Russia and Ukraine are able to do something. It has to stop.'
Late on Wednesday, Washington said the US president would not attend the talks after Vladimir Putin refused to heed Volodymyr Zelensky's calls to face him in person.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy criticised Vladimir Putin for sending a 'low level' delegation to Ukraine peace talks in Turkey.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is prepared to meet Vladimir Putin for talks on resolving the conflict, but the Russian leader is not expected to travel to Turkey.
At a separate gathering of Nato ministers in the country, Mr Lammy said: 'We come with one single message to stand by Ukraine and to ensure that we get a just and lasting, enduring peace.
'And the readiness for that peace is demonstrated by President Zelensky being here in Turkey as well. And of course, we watched closely as we head to these talks, noting the Russian low-level individuals who are coming to represent the Russian side.'
There has been no confirmation the Russia-Ukraine talks have begun.
Russian media reported that they would start at 8am BST, which a Ukrainian official denied.
They will be held behind closed doors at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
Volodymyr Zelensky wished Ukrainians a happy Vyshyvanka Day, a holiday that seeks to preserve Ukrainian folk traditions and heritage.
Amid Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian president said: 'We will definitely preserve and pass on what is Ukrainian, what is ours, to the next generations.'
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Belarus on February 28, 2022, four days after Russia's full-scale invasion.
They later held meetings by video link before meeting again in person in Istanbul on March 29. After that they exchanged multiple drafts until mid-April, before the talks broke down.
According to draft documents, leaked last year, Ukraine was prepared to become a permanently neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free state, with no foreign troops or weapons on its soil. These terms would have barred it from joining Nato but allowed for the possibility of EU membership.
In return, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, Russia, the United States and France.
A partially agreed draft said the guarantor states - including Russia - would respect and observe Ukraine's independence and sovereignty. Talks would also be held regarding the status of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
However, key issues concerned the size of Ukraine's military and what happened if the country was attacked. Russia demanded all the guarantors must agree on the decision, meaning Moscow would have a veto.
Russia also demanded an end to discrimination against Russian speakers, something that Kyiv denies, and a repeal of what it called the 'laws of Ukraine on Nazification and glorification of Nazism', which Kyiv rejected as absurd.
There is 'no military solution' to the war in Ukraine, Marco Rubio said, ahead of expected peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Instead, the US secretary of state, said the only way to end the three-year conflict is through diplomatic means.
Washington, he added, was 'impatient' for progress in peace efforts and willing to consider 'any mechanism' to achieve a lasting end to the war.
Speaking at a Nato meeting in Turkey, he said: 'Obviously, like everyone else, impatient, we want to see it happen, but it's difficult. But you know, hopefully progress will be made here soon.'
Volodymyr Zelensky plans to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, and only then decide what steps to take on peace talks with Russia, a senior official said.
'The president starts his visit with Erdogan in Ankara and only then will the president decide on the next steps,' the official told AFP, after Russian state media reported that Moscow's delegation had landed in Istanbul for planned talks.
Vladimir Putin is a no-show in Istanbul despite President Trump offering to come and hold his hand. Will the US president, who has now had to abandon plans to travel to Turkey, shrug off this latest rebuff or continue to try to charm the coquette in the Kremlin?
My suspicion is the former. Mr Trump's contortionist peace efforts, which he placed at the very centre of his foreign policy agenda, would be attracting widespread ridicule if they had been attempted by any other US leader, but Trump doesn't particularly care.
One could also conclude that Putin looks fairly ridiculous as well. He called these talks as a way of ducking out of a 30-day ceasefire that, in his view, would have imperilled the momentum his forces have on the battlefield. Volodymyr Zelensky, under pressure from Washington, called his bluff, and suggested he meet Putin mano a mano in Istanbul -- only for the Russian leader to chicken out.
To make matters worse, Putin has not even sent any of his heavy hitters, despite initial reports that Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Yuri Ushakov, the president's top foreign policy aide, would be in attendance. Instead, the Russian leader is sending a low-level delegation led by retreads from the fruitless talks early in the war back in the first half of 2022.
The question is how Mr Trump will interpret Putin's actions. European leaders will hope that this might be the moment that the US president is finally convinced that Putin is not to be trusted and has no intention of suing for an honourable peace. If so, the Istanbul talks that Putin proposed could end up being a massive own goal for the Kremlin, with Mr Zelensky emerging as the unexpected winner in Turkey.
I'm not sure I will be holding my breath, though. Trump has been remarkably indulgent when it comes to Putin, treating him with a respect he has rarely shown his allies. Retreating now would be rational but embarrassing -- and Mr Trump hates to be embarrassed.
There has been no agreement on when talks with Russia in Turkey might start on Thursday, a Ukrainian official said on Thursday.
He dismissed reports from Russia media, citing officials, that the discussions would start at 10am local time (8am BST). '[It] was not planned and was not true'.
Mark Rutte, the chief of Nato, said that he was 'cautiously optimistic' for progress towards peace in Ukraine, but that it was up to Russia to take the 'necessary next steps'.
'I'm still cautiously optimistic that if also the Russians are willing to play ball, and not only the Ukrainians are doing this... that you could get to some breakthroughs over the next couple of weeks,' Mr Rutte said at a Nato meeting in Turkey.
Today's peace talks come a day after the European Union unveiled its 17th package of sanctions on Russia.
The US president also said he was 'always considering' secondary sanctions on Moscow.
Jean-Noel Barrot, France's foreign minister, said on Wednesday the sanctions announced so far did not go far enough and that Europe and the US must take more action in order to 'suffocate' Russia's economy.'We will have to go further, because these massive sanctions have not yet deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing his war of aggression against Ukraine,' Mr Barrot told broadcaster BFMTV.'We must prepare to impose devastating sanctions that could suffocate the Russian economy once and for all,' he said.
Putin approved a list of experts for the negotiations as well as senior aides and defence chiefs.
The delegation includes:
Vladimir Medinsky
A senior Kremlin aide who helped lead 2022 peace talks, Medinsky will head the delegation.
Medinsky is the man behind a new history textbook for schools which reflect Putin's historical view: pride at the achievements of the superpower Soviet Union, indignation at the humiliations of the Soviet collapse, and acclaim for the 'rebirth' of Russia under the former KGB spy's rule which began on the last day of 1999.
He is chairman of the ultra-patriotic Russian Military Historical Society.
Mikhail Galuzin
Galuzin is deputy foreign minister. He oversees relations with the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet republics.
Igor Kostyukov
Kostyukov is the director of Russian military intelligence, known as GRU, or more recently as simply GU.
The GRU is one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world.
Kostyukov was the first naval officer to head GRU.
Alexander Fomin
Fomin is the deputy defence minister and also took part in the failed 2022 talks.
Negotiations are scheduled for 10am local time (8am BST).
They will be held behind closed doors at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
Given that Putin was not listed on the official guest list Moscow has released, it looked likely that Donald Trump would not part in peace talks in-person either.
Washington has since confirmed that Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, Mr Trump's senior envoys, would be in Istanbul instead.
Mr Trump, who is on a tour of the Middle East, said on Wednesday that he was 'thinking' of going to Turkey if Putin was going to be there.
Putin would 'like me to be there' he said.
Read more: Trump and Qatar Emir stage love-in amid $400m jet furore
Volodymyr Zelensky has had several meetings about the 'format in Turkiye' ahead of expected peace talks but is still deciding whether he will be at the meetings.
Mr Zelensky has challenged Putin meet him face-to-face in Istanbul, but the Kremlin said on Wednesday night that another senior official would go in the Russian president's place.
'I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take,' the Ukrainian president said in a social media post.
'So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing.
'We also hear that President Trump is considering attending the meeting... that could become the strongest argument.'
He added 'This week really may change a lot — but only may. Everything is being decided right now.'
Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine are expected to met in Turkey today.
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