Zelensky says Russia sent 'dummy' delegation with unclear mandate to Türkiye

ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to journalists as he arrives at Esenboğa airport in Ankara, Türkiye, Thursday, May 15, 2025.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had the impression Russia sent a "dummy" delegation with an unclear mandate to Türkiye for the first direct talks between Moscow and Kiev in over three years.

"We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation and what their mandate is, if they are capable of making any decisions themselves," Zelensky said, adding that "from what we see, it looks more like a dummy".

He added that Ukraine would "think about what we will do, what our steps will be, after we talk to (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan.

Russian officials, for their part, called Zelensky "pathetic" and a "clown".

The exchange of personal barbs undermines the chances of any breakthrough at the talks.

The Kremlin said Thursday President Vladimir Putin currently had no plans to go to Istanbul, despite U.S. leader Donald Trump saying he would be ready to go.

"No, there are no such plans at the moment," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

A Russian delegation landed in Istanbul on Thursday, Russian state media reported, but without President Vladimir Putin as many world leaders had urged.

Trump said Thursday he could still travel to Türkiye if the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine make progress.

"You know, if something happened, I'd go on Friday," Trump said in Qatar, after the Russian delegation arrived in Istanbul for the talks.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters 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 was not included on a list of Moscow's negotiating team published by the Kremlin, after Zelensky challenged him to turn up in person to the talks.

Putin opted instead to send a lower-level team headed up by a hardline aide who oversaw the failed peace talks in March 2022 in the first weeks of Russia's invasion.

The absence of Putin — as well as any top diplomats like Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov — would seem to diminish the talks' importance or any possibility of a breakthrough.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Moscow invaded in February 2022, and Russia now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine's territory in Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

"The president starts his visit with Erdoğan in Ankara and only then will the president decide on the next steps," the official said, after Russian state media reported that Moscow's delegation had landed in Istanbul for planned talks.

Ukraine also rejected reports in Russian state media that the talks could set to start at 10:00 am (0700 GMT).

"Russian fake news," Zelensky's spokesman said when asked if that was the plan.

AFP reporters at the Dolmabahce Palace, where the talks are rumoured to be taking place, saw hundreds of journalists waiting outside.

  'His war' 

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a swift end to the war, floated the possibility of attending and had called on Putin to turn up.

His Secretary of State Marco Rubio was to travel to Istanbul on Friday "for meetings with European counterparts to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and other regional issues of mutual concern", the State Department said.

Zelensky had spent days corralling Putin to turn up.

"This is his war... Therefore, the negotiations should be with him," he said in one statement.

Despite the flurry of diplomacy in a bid to end the war, Moscow and Kiev's positions remain far apart and there has been little sign either are willing to make concessions.

The Kremlin's naming of Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Putin and ex-culture minister, as its top negotiator suggests Moscow does not plan to make any concessions at the talks.

Medinsky led the failed 2022 negotiations in which Moscow called for sweeping territorial claims and restrictions on Ukraine's military.

Medinsky is seen as influential in advancing Russia's historical claims over Ukrainian territory.

The other three negotiators were named as Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

Ukraine has not named its delegation. Its Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga is in Türkiye meeting NATO foreign ministers at a gathering in Antalya.

  'Cautiously optimistic' 

Putin held a briefing with his negotiating team and Russia's top foreign policy and defence officials in Moscow on Wednesday before they departed for Istanbul, the Kremlin said, without providing details.

Russia insists the talks address what it calls the "root causes" of the conflict, including a "denazification" and demilitarisation of Ukraine, two vague terms Moscow has used to justify its invasion that are widely rejected in Kiev and the West.

It has also repeated that Ukraine must cede territory occupied by Russian troops and pull out of some areas still under Ukraine's control.

Kiev is calling for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, and says it will not recognise its territories as Russian.

But Zelensky has acknowledged that Ukraine might only get them back through diplomatic means.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said Thursday that he was "cautiously optimistic" for progress towards peace 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," Rutte said at the NATO meeting.

European leaders have said new sanctions will be quickly imposed on Russia if the Istanbul talks do not produce results.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan expressed hope that Thursday's peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul might pave the way for a fresh start.

“Now, after three years of immense suffering, there is finally a window of opportunity,” Hakan Fidan said in his welcoming speech at the opening of an informal NATO foreign ministers meeting.

“The talks in Istanbul, hopefully, may open a new chapter,” Fidan said.

Fidan also stressed the need to establish a security network across NATO stretching from U.S. state of Texas to the Turkish capital Ankara.