Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready for direct talks in Istanbul with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but not with any other head of the Russian delegation, Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, has said.
“No, of course not. Well, that’s not the format,” Podolyak said on the Youtube channel The Breakfast Show on 13 May, when asked whether Zelensky would meet with another Russian representative if Putin did not come to the meeting.
The adviser to the OP head said that a possible bilateral meeting in Istanbul at a lower level does not make sense, according to him, even people with the “formal status of ministers” of the Russian Federation can hardly make decisions on the issue of war.
“Only Putin can make the decision to continue the war or end the war,” Podolyak said.
A meeting with Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on 15 May was proposed by Vladimir Zelensky in response to Putin’s offer to hold talks without specifying the composition of the delegations.
Zelensky offered Putin to meet there in person; there has been no response to this proposal from the Kremlin so far. Moscow also ignored a demand from Ukraine and its Western allies: to agree to a 30-day comprehensive ceasefire from 12 May.
US President Donald Trump said the day before that he did not rule out the possibility of his presence at the talks in Istanbul.
Trump this week embarked on the first major international trip of his second presidency, during which he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.