London – Ukrainian and Russian representatives will meet in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, for their first meeting since the first weeks of the 3 -year invasion of Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Thursday’s talks, despite an invitation from the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a face -to -face meeting between the two leaders.
The return to Istanbul is symbolic, the historic Turkish city that undoubtedly welcomed the most successful gusts of diplomacy in three years of devastating war.
It was there in March 2022 that the Ukrainian and Russian negotiators produced the statement of Istanbul – the framework of a possible peace agreement to end the nascent invasion of Russia.
His compromise was essentially one of the Ukraine accepting permanent neutrality – which means abandoning any hope of becoming a member of NATO – in exchange for security guarantees following.
Subsequent war intensification and emerging evidence of alleged Russian war crimes – as well as suspicion of sabotage operations against participants in peace talks – fatally undermined these early peace efforts.
This combination of photos created on May 12, 2025 shows the Russian president Vladimir Putin at Kremlin in Moscow on March 12, 2024 and a photo of the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore on June 2, 2024.
Gavril Grigorovnhac Nguyen / Pool / AFP / AFP via Getty Images
Later, Istanbul was also the center of the Black Sea Grains Initiative which took place from 2022 to 2023, which with the support of Turkey and the United Nations temporarily allowed the safe export of cereals and other agricultural products from Ukrainian and Russian ports through the Black Sea – which had then become a key theater of fights – to the rest of the world.
The assistant of the Kremlin Vladimir Medinsky – who led talks in 2022 – will direct the Russian delegation.
Medinsky will be joined by Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, head of the Russian military intelligence agency.
Zelenskyy and Putin met for the last time in person in France in 2019 for a session of the format of Normandy, a peace forum convened with France and Germany in order to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The fighting was discussed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the subsequent foments of a separatist revolt against kyiv in the Donbas region. The large -scale invasion of Moscow in 2022 was a continuation of this initial cross -border aggression, the Russian columns leaving occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk to grasp more territory.
Zelenskyy said at a press conference this week that he met any other Russian representative, because “everything in Russia depends” on the president. “I will go to Türkiye and I am ready to meet Putin,” said Zelenskyy.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy is expected to be in the Turkish capital Ankara to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A local resident looks at the Russian military vehicles destroyed on the Saint Michael square in kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14, 2025.
Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump – who has since returned to his duties has sought a ceasefire and a possible peace agreement – suggested this week that he hoped for progress during Thursday talks.
“I think we have very good news that comes out of there today and maybe tomorrow and maybe Friday,” Trump said when he arrived in Qatar on Wednesday.
The president even hinted that he could even go to Istanbul, but did not say if he expected that he expected Putin to do the same.
“Well, I don’t know if he arises,” said Trump about his Russian counterpart. “He would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. If we could end the war, I would think about it,” added Trump.
The American delegation in Türkiye includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg. Speaking during a rally of NATO Foreign Ministers in Istanbul on Thursday, Rubio said about his hopes for the next talks in Ukraine-Russia: “We will see what is happening in the coming days.”
“I will say this, and I will repeat it, that there is no military solution to the conflict of Russia-Ukraine, Rubio continued.” This war will not end up with a military solution, but with a diplomatic, and the sooner an agreement can be concluded by finishing this war, the fewer people, fewer people will die and less destruction will be. “”
Trump, said Rubio, “is interested in building things, not to destroy. He wants economies and countries to focus on building things, making things, the possibility of opportunity and prosperity in his people, and he is against everything that prevents this from happening, like wars, like terrorism and all the instability that comes with this.”
Putin proposed the talks last weekend, in response to the request of Ukraine-supported by the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland during a joint visit to kyiv-for a complete 30-day cease-fire during which peace talks could take place. Trump accepted the plan by phone, European leaders said.
In this photo taken from videos distributed by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense on May 13, 2025, a Russian multiple and self-propelled rocket launcher is pulled towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine.
AP
But Trump then also supported Putin’s offer to restart the talks that collapsed in 2022. Trump even supported publicly that Zelenskyy is “immediately” accepted the meeting.
Despite the importance of direct talks in Ukraine -Russia Russia, Oleg Ignatov – Russia Senior Analyst of the International Crisis Group – told ABC News that he had low expectations of an immediate breakthrough.
“The Russians clearly say that they are interested in maintaining military and diplomatic pressure on Ukraine,” he said. “They clearly say that there will be long negotiations and that Ukraine should be prepared for this.”
While Trump agitates for an agreement he can sell as a political victory, kyiv and Moscow maneuent to avoid blame for the failure of peace talks – and Dodge Trump in Trump’s anger.
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha met Rubio on Wednesday in Istanbul. “I reaffirmed the strong and coherent commitment of Ukraine to President Trump’s peace efforts and thanked the United States for his involvement,” wrote OM X.
“We are ready to advance our cooperation in a constructive and mutually beneficial way,” he added. “It is essential that Russia does the same thing as the constructive stages of Ukraine.
