Putin will not attend Ukraine peace talks in Turkey
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to Turkey for peace talks on the war in Ukraine, despite calls from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky for him to attend.Russia's delegation at Thursday's talks in Istanbul will instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinksy, according to a 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.Earlier on Wednesday, Donald Trump floated the possibility of joining the meeting himself if Putin did.The US president, who is currently in Qatar, told reporters he did not know if his Russian counterpart would attend "if I'm not there"."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," Trump said.The US is expected to send a high-level delegation to the talks, including the country's top diplomat Marco Rubio. Since returning to the White House, President Trump has sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
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