Ukraine's Zelenskyy says he is sending a delegation to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia

ANKARA, Turkey — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday he is sending a team headed by his defense minister to Istanbul for the first direct peace talks with a Russian delegation since the early weeks of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Zelenskyy made the move after Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed away from a face-to-face meeting with him in Turkey that the Ukrainian leader had proposed in a flurry of diplomatic maneuvers last weekend.

Zelenskyy told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara the Russian delegation doesn't include ''anyone who actually makes decisions,'' accusing Moscow of not taking efforts to end the war seriously.

But he said that to demonstrate to U.S. President Donald Trump that Ukraine is seeking an end to the conflict he had decided to send officials from Ankara to Istanbul — more than 400 kilometers (almost 300 miles) away — for their first direct talks since March 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor the previous month.

He said the Ukrainian side would be headed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and its aim is ''to attempt at least the first steps toward de-escalation, the first steps toward ending the war — namely, a ceasefire.''

Putin's absence punctured hopes of a breakthrough in peace efforts that were given a push in recent months by the Trump administration and Western European leaders amid the intense maneuvering. It also raised the prospect of intensified international sanctions on Russia that have been threatened by the West.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier welcomed Zelenskyy with an honor guard at the presidential palace in Ankara before the two held talks.

''Now, after three years of immense suffering, there is finally a window of opportunity,'' Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a NATO meeting taking place separately in Turkey. ''The talks ... hopefully may open a new chapter.''

The war has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the U.N., and continues along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Russian forces are preparing a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say.

At least five civilians were killed and 29 injured in the past day, according to authorities in five eastern regions of Ukraine where Russia's army is trying to advance.

A weekend of diplomatic maneuvering

The diplomatic maneuvering began over the weekend when European leaders met Zelenskyy in Kyiv and urged the Kremlin to agree to a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire as a first step toward peace. Putin later responded by proposing direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul. Then came Zelenskyy's challenge to Putin for face-to-face talks.

After days of silence, the Kremlin finally responded Thursday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying Putin has no plans to travel to Istanbul in the next few days.

Trump said he was not surprised that Putin was a no-show. Trump had pressed for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet but brushed off Putin's apparent decision not to attend.

''I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there,'' Trump told reporters at a meeting with business executives in Doha, Qatar, on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.

Trump said a meeting between him and Putin was crucial to break the deadlock.

''I don't believe anything's going to happen whether you like it or not, until (Putin) and I get together,'' he said on Air Force One while traveling from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. ''But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.''

Peskov said Putin has no plans to meet with Trump in the coming days.

Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, is leading the Russian team that will also include three other senior officials, the Kremlin said. Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as ''experts'' for the talks in Istanbul.

Also absent from the talks were Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, both of whom represented Russia at the talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia in March.

The top-level Ukrainian delegation included Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak, a Ukrainian official said. Zelenskyy will sit at the negotiating table only with Putin, said presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.

Details about whether, when and where the Ukrainian delegation might meet their Russian counterparts were unclear. Russia said the talks have been postponed until the afternoon ''at the initiative of the Turkish side''

Tass said the talks were to take place in a presidential office on the Bosporus, in Istanbul.

Putin met Wednesday evening with senior government officials and members of the delegation in preparation for the talks, Peskov said. Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov, and National Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu also attended.

Russia calls the talks a ‘restart'

The Kremlin billed Thursday's talks as a ''restart'' of peace negotiations that were held in Istanbul in 2022 but quickly fell apart. Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of wanting to continue fighting, while Kyiv said Russia's demands amounted to an ultimatum rather than something both sides could agree on.

Russia's delegation then was also headed by Medinsky.

Putin's proposal came after more than three months of diplomacy kickstarted by Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the devastating war swiftly — though it's been hard to pull off. The Trump administration in recent weeks indicated that it might walk away from the peace effort if there was no tangible progress soon.

Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, met with U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio and Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday night in the Turkish city of Antalya, which is hosting NATO foreign ministers to discuss new defense investment goals as the U.S. shifts its focus to security challenges away from Europe.

Sybiha reaffirmed Ukraine's support for Trump's mediation efforts and thanked the U.S. for its continued involvement, urging Moscow to ''reciprocate Ukraine's constructive steps'' toward peace. "So far, it has not,'' Sybiha said.

On Thursday morning, Sybiha also met with other European foreign ministers, including his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, who in a post on X reiterated the call for a ceasefire and the threat of ''massive sanctions'' if Russia doesn't comply.

''We're in a very difficult spot right now, and we hope that we can find the steps forward that provide for the end of this war in a negotiated way and the prevention of any war in the future," Rubio said Thursday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Putin of ''standing in the way of peace.''

''There was only one country that started this conflict -- that was Russia. That was Putin. There's only one country now standing in the way of peace -- that is Russia, that is Putin,'' he said in a visit to Tirana, Albania.

Barrot echoed that sentiment: ''In front of Ukrainians there is an empty chair, one that should have been occupied by Vladimir Putin,'' he said. ''Vladimir Putin is dragging his feet and in all evidence does not want to enter into these peace discussions.''

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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels; Illia Novikov and Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; Aamer Madhani in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Matthew Lee in Antalya, Turkey, contributed.

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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine