Ukraine and Russia are set to go into their first direct talks in more than three years in Istanbul, but Vladimir Putin has rejected Volodymyr Zelenskky’s bold proposal for a face-to-face meeting to discuss peace.
The Ukrainian President had challenged the Rusian President to meet him in person, today, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Istanbul, but the Kremlin said that he will not be taking him up on the offer.
Putin had proposed holding the talks in Istanbul as a counter-offer after Ukraine and European nations last week called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
Zelenskyy agreed, but said this week that if Putin did not attend himself, it would signal he was not genuinely interested in peace.That warning has now turned into a prophecy fulfilled.
Zelenskyy is due in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Thursday where he will meet with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Nonetheless, he said that he would be ready to fly to Istanbul at a moment’s notice if the Russian leader showed up.
The Kremlin had for several days declined to say who would go to Istanbul.
However, late on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, it said that Putin would not be attending and that instead the Russian delegation would be led by hawkish former culture minister, now presidential adviser, Vladimir Medinsky, who led the only previous round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
Also included in the delegation are Alexander Fomin, a Deputy Defence Minister; Igor Kostyukov, the Head of Russia’s military intelligence agency and Mikhail Galuzin, a Deputy Foreign Minister.
Notably, the Kremlin is not sending its two most senior diplomats, Foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who have previously taken part in multiple high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia.
Putin’s refusal to attend speaks volumes about the Kremlin’s intentions. The optics alone are devastating: Ukraine’s President is willing to talk peace directly, while Russia’s leader hides behind surrogates with no real mandate for resolution.
Russia’s decision to appoint Medinsky to lead the talks suggests it aims to revive negotiations along the lines of the fruitless 2022 Istanbul round, which included maximalist demands such as limiting Ukraine’s military and blocking it from rebuilding with western support – terms Kyiv has rejected as unacceptable.
Russia insists the talks address what it calls the “root causes” of the conflict, including the “denazification” and demilitarisation of Ukraine, two vague terms Moscow has used to justify the invasion. It has also repeated that Ukraine must cede its territory occupied by Russian troops.
Kyiv said that it won’t recognise its territories as Russian – though Zelenskyy has acknowledged that Ukraine might only get them back through diplomatic means.
In Istanbul, Ukraine is expected to call for a full 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for further talks.
Ukraine agreed last month to the US proposal of an unconditional ceasefire, which Zelenskyy said was a prerequisite for negotiations. But Putin, whose troops have the momentum in parts of the frontline, rejected the proposal.
Talks Not A Signal Of Putin’s Openness To Agreement
Amid many theories about why Putin called for talks, Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and founder of the site R.Politik, cautioned against reading too much into it.
Stanovaya wrote in a lengthy post on X that the talks do not necessarily indicate that Putin is open to reaching an agreement, much less scaling back the Russian military position.
She said that instead, the Russian leader appears to be responding to Trump’s lack of interest in the war and a push by European leaders for an unconditional ceasefire.
“Putin sees an opportunity to draw Ukraine into an ‘Istanbul-2’ process, closely resembling the talks of March–April 2022, to pursue the same objectives – now including the newly annexed territories.
“His aim is to stall Western arms deliveries, exploit any weakening of Zelenskyy’s position, and exacerbate Ukraine’s internal instability. He also wants Kyiv to lift its ban on talks with Russians, which would allow broader outreach within Ukraine. He does not believe, even for a moment, that Kyiv in its current state can agree to Russian terms.”
Tatiana Stanovaya
Zelenskyy said in Kyiv that the West should impose massive sanctions if Putin skips the meeting.
He also said he would decide on Kyiv’s next “steps” depending on who Russia sends.
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