Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara on 15 May, where he is scheduled to hold talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine will decide on its next steps in negotiations with Russian Federation after the meeting with Erdogan.
“As for high-level meetings, we will start with a meeting with President Erdogan, the broad delegation of Turkey. We-in contact with the American side, they will also, I think, be in Turkey at a high level. We’ll see, but the level of the Russians is not officially known to me yet. But from what we see, it looks more like a bogus level. We’ll think about what we’re going to do, what our steps will be, after we talk to President Erdogan. I think we will have a few hours for an important conversation, very important decisions,” the president said.
According to him, it is necessary to understand what mandate the Russian delegation has, whether it can make decisions on its own, “because everyone knows who in Russia makes decisions.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that today’s Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul had been postponed to the afternoon of 15 May. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the meeting was postponed at the initiative of the Turkish side.
Meanwhile, hundreds of journalists are waiting for the start of the talks in Istanbul near the Dolmabahce Palace, where the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations are scheduled to take place.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Putin’s participation in the talks and said he was ready to talk to him personally.
The Kremlin did not confirm Putin’s participation at first, and in the evening of 14 May announced the composition of the delegation, where he is not present.
US President Donald Trump also said that he might come to the Ukraine-Russia talks depending on the progress at the talks, but there are no exact details regarding his possible participation yet.