- Russian President Vladimir Putin is not expected to attend talks in Turkiye today aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, after the Kremlin named a negotiating team for the first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since discussions broke down in the weeks after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said he would attend the talks if Putin were present, after the Russian leader proposed Istanbul as a venue for direct negotiations.
- The Russian side expected to arrive in Istanbul will be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin and ex-culture minister, who was involved in short-lived 2022 negotiations.
- US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, are reported to be travelling to Istanbul for the negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.
Turkiye hopes Istanbul talks will open new chapter for Ukraine-Russia peace
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says there is a new window of opportunity to achieve peace between Ukraine and Russia, adding that he hoped planned talks would open a new chapter.
Fidan was speaking at the opening of an informal NATO foreign ministers meeting in the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
US, Europe readying sanctions on Russia’s energy, financial sectors: French FM
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has revealed that the US and Europe are preparing further sanctions on Russia’s energy and financial sectors.
Barrot’s comment, reported ahead of an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Turkiye’s Antalya coastal city on Thursday, comes as Russia’s President Putin chose not to attend much-anticipated talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul with a Russian delegation on ending the war in Ukraine.
Russian jet entered NATO airspace, says Estonia’s foreign minister
Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Russia sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace today for about one minute to “check on the situation” as Estonia was attempting to detain a ship in Russia’s shadow fleet.
The foreign minister described the situation as “very serious”.
The incident occurred as NATO foreign ministers arrived in Turkiye today for an informal summit.
Trump open to any mechanism resulting in just peace in Ukraine: Rubio
There is no military solution to the Russia-Ukraine war and US President Donald Trump is open to any mechanism that would result in a just peace, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Speaking before the start of an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Turkiye on Thursday, Rubio said the US wants to see progress and is growing “impatient” with the lack of traction.
“Obviously, like everyone else, impatient, we want to see it happen, but it’s difficult. But you know, hopefully progress will be made here soon,” Rubio said.
Zelenskyy to meet with Turkiye’s Erdogan before talks
Zelenskyy will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara before any talks with Russian officials, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
“The president starts his visit with Erdogan in Ankara and only then will the president decide on the next steps,” the official told the AFP news agency following reports that a Russian delegation had arrived in Istanbul for talks with Ukrainian counterparts.
Putin discussed Ukraine talks with Russia’s most senior officials, Kremlin says
President Putin held a late-night meeting with some of Russia’s most powerful officials to discuss upcoming peace talks with Ukraine, the Kremlin has said.
Among those present was Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, chief of Russia’s general staff Valery Gerasimov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, spy chiefs and senior Russian commanders.
Where does Germany stand on the Istanbul talks?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said any deal reached between Moscow and Kyiv must not be a “dictated peace”, and urged unity among Western allies as negotiations begin.
Merz told the German parliament on Tuesday that it is of “of paramount importance that the political West does not allow itself to be divided”.
He also warned that this week, the EU may tighten sanctions on Russia if the two sides cannot come to an agreement in Istanbul, because “more compromise and more concessions are no longer reasonable”.
No indication Russia wants peace in Ukraine, says Latvian foreign minister
Latvia’s Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said there is no indication that Russia wants peace in Ukraine and that it was important to weaken Russia’s military capabilities.
“Weakening Russia’s military capabilities is the most direct and cheapest way … to achieve peace in Ukraine,” Braze told reporters on Thursday ahead of an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Turkiye.
Putin’s low-level delegation in Turkiye a ‘slap in the face’: Estonian FM
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Putin’s dispatching of a low-level delegation to Turkiye for talks regarding the war in Ukraine was “like a slap in the face”.
The foreign ministers of NATO member states are currently meeting in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya.
The Russian delegation has arrived in Istanbul
Russia’s delegation has landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
It is still unknown what time negotiations will begin, with Russian officials saying the exact time has yet to be confirmed.
Another unknown variable is how long talks will last.
Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested to Russian outlet TASS they could extend beyond Thursday.
“Today is the beginning of negotiations. Everything will depend on their progress,” he said.
NATO chief says ceasefire is up to Russia
NATO chief Mark Rutte said that Ukraine has made it clear they want a ceasefire and immediate talks, so Russia must respond.
“It is now up to the Russians to make sure they take the next steps necessary,” Rutte told reporters from the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Antalya, Turkiye.
“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.
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze, however, said the security bloc sees “no indications that Russia wants peace in Ukraine”.
No agreement on when talks in Turkey may start, Ukrainian official says
A Ukrainian official said there had been no agreement on when talks with Russia will start in Turkey, dismissing an earlier report from Russian state media.
Andriy Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said on the Telegram messaging platform that there was no truth to the report by Russia state news agency TASS that 10 am local time in Istanbul (0700 GMT) had been set for talks to start this morning.
This “was not planned and was not true,” he said.
Why does Russia keep mentioning its 2022 talks with Ukraine?
Mention of Russia and Ukraine’s talks in Istanbul back in 2022 are everywhere in Moscow’s official messaging this week, and it’s no coincidence, according to Russian journalist Alexander Baunov.
“Everything has been done to ensure that Moscow’s proposal does not appear to be the result of pressure from Washington,” he wrote in a Russian-language post for Carnegie Politika.
“This is reminiscent of Moscow’s previous concession: agreement to de-escalation in the Black Sea at the end of March. It was also important for the Russian leadership then to emphasize that nothing new was happening: the grain deal, which was not extended in 2023, was simply being resumed,” he said, according to an unofficial English translation.
“Moscow is presenting its new initiative in a similar way: nothing new is happening, after a long break, we are simply proposing to resume the 2022 negotiations that Ukraine interrupted at the behest of the West. That is, we are not proposing negotiations because Trump wanted them.”
‘Any meeting with Zelenskyy would be disastrous’: Jailed Russian war hawk
Russian nationalist and jailed Kremlin critic Igor Girkin wrote in a Telegram post that any direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy would be “disastrous” both for Putin and for “the negotiating stance of the Russian Federation”.
“Zelenskyy has made a very clever move, putting Moscow in an extremely disadvantageous position” by offering to meet in person in Istanbul, Girkin wrote from prison.
“If Putin agrees to direct negotiations with Zelenskyy, then a barrage of mockery in the West begins, since Putin has so many times personally and through his close allies declared Zelenskyy’s illegitimacy … In fact, his meeting with Zelenskyy is a recognition of Zelenskyy’s complete legitimacy,” he wrote, according to an unofficial English translation.
“However, not meeting will not improve the situation in the Russian Federation either, since all the world’s media … will perceive this as a reason to accuse Russia of having proposed negotiations and of disrupting them,” he wrote. “That is, wherever you throw it, it’s a wedge, a defeat everywhere.”
Girkin, a former officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2024 for criticising Putin’s handling of the war in Ukraine.
Before then, he played a chief role in Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea. He was also linked to the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 with a Russian surface-to-air missile.
‘Significant step’: Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkiye – what to expect
Russia and Ukraine are poised to start talks in Turkiye this morning, even though the prospects of President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting directly for the first time in three years were dashed by the Kremlin late on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Putin proposed the idea of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkiye, instead of the rounds of indirect talks that the US and others have tried to mediate between the neighbours at war.
Read our explainer here about the talks, what prompted them, who’s expected to attend, and why the negotiations matter.
Talks on Ukraine to start in Istanbul shortly: TASS
Russia’s TASS news agency reports that talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul are scheduled to start at approximately 10am local time [07:00 GMT] today, and will be held behind closed doors.
A source told TASS that the negotiations will take place at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.
Why did Putin call for talks now?
There are many theories about why Putin has called for talks, but 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.
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, she said.
“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,” she wrote.
“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.”
Ukrainian FM says Putin must stop ‘avoiding the meeting’ with Zelenskyy
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he met with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in a week when “the epicentre of world diplomacy is now in Turkiye”.
Sybiha said he briefed the Turkish foreign minister on battlefield and diplomatic developments in Ukraine, as well as Kyiv’s commitment to “a full and durable ceasefire” and the “highest-level direct meeting between Ukraine and Russia”.
He also said in his post on social media that “Putin must stop rejecting the ceasefire and avoiding the meeting with President Zelenskyy”.
Who is on the Russian delegation?
Russia’s TASS news agency reports that the Russian delegation will be led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led talks back in 2022. The other chief negotiators will be Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and Igor Kostyukov, chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has said the Russian team will likely aim to work off the same platform as they did during the 2022 talks.
Moscow continues to express doubt about a ceasefire, however, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleging that it will only “give Kyiv a respite to restore its military potential in order to continue the confrontation with Russia”.
Talks in Istanbul, what we know
- Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow are expected to hold their first direct talks since 2022 in Istanbul on the possibility of ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will travel to Turkiye, but said his attendance at the negotiations would depend on Russian President Vladimir Putin also showing up.
- It appears that Putin will not attend – his name was not included on the Kremlin’s list of those attending the talks, though the Russian president had proposed the Turkish city as the location for negotiations.
- US President Donald Trump, who is currently on a trip to the Middle East, had suggested he might also attend if Putin were to do so.
- After the Kremlin’s announcement that Putin would not attend, US broadcaster CNN cited White House officials as saying that Trump would not travel to Turkiye either.
- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is in Turkiye for a NATO meeting, will attend the negotiations in Istanbul, Trump said.
- The Reuters news agency reports that Trump’s two senior envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, will also travel to Istanbul for the talks, according to three sources familiar with their plans.
UN chief calls for immediate Ukraine ceasefire as step to ‘just peace’
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin ahead of Thursday’s planned peace talks in Istanbul, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine”.
Guterres said a ceasefire would “pave the way for a just peace … based on the UN Charter and international law, namely respecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
The secretary-general said the UN is ready to support the talks, but emphasised that both Russia and Ukraine must request its involvement.
“The UN is ready to provide whatever support if the parties agree, would ask the UN to do so, but obviously this does not depend on us, it depends on the parties,” he said.
US Secretary of State Rubio meets NATO ministers in Turkiye before Ukraine-Russia talks
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his NATO counterparts met in Turkiye on Wednesday to prepare for a pivotal summit of alliance leaders next month.
Their meeting in the coastal city of Antalya comes amid planned talks in Istanbul aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Rubio is expected to attend the talks today, The Associated Press news agency reports.
Rubio also met with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.
Sybiha said on X that he explained Zelenksyy’s “vision of further peace efforts” during “this critical week” to Rubio.
“We discussed in detail the logic of further steps and shared our approaches,” he added.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says ‘waiting to see’ who attends Istanbul talks from Russia
In a post on social media early this morning, the Ukrainian leader said he had held several meetings regarding the “format in Turkiye”, where talks are expected to start later today on ending the war in his country.
Zelenskyy, who has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the talks in person, said he was “waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take”.
“So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing,” he said.
The Kremlin has published a list of officials set to attend the talks, and Putin’s name was not included.
Can Istanbul talks pave way to end the war in Ukraine?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to attend a meeting proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul on Thursday, as long as Putin is there in person.
A glimmer of hope to end the more than three-year war in Ukraine that has killed thousands of civilians – and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
So, can this meeting in Istanbul stop the fighting?
Watch the full report on Al Jazeera’s Inside Story:
A recap of recent developments
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that a delegation of high-level Russian officials will travel to Turkiye for direct talks on the war in Ukraine today, but the Russian president himself does not appear on a list of attendees.
- An order issued by Putin was published on the Kremlin’s website late on Wednesday, stating that Russian presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin, and director of the Main Intelligence Directorate Igor Kostyukov will be among those travelling to Turkiye.
- Thursday’s planned negotiations in Turkiye’s commercial hub, Istanbul, mark the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow on ending the war since shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to hold talks with Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, and had said he would attend the negotiations with Russia in Istanbul if President Putin attended.
- In a post on social media on Wednesday evening, Zelenskyy said: “I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take. So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing.”
- US President Donald Trump’s senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg will travel to Istanbul for the talks, three sources familiar with the plans told the Reuters news agency.
Welcome to our live coverage
Hello, and thank you for joining our live coverage of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the war that started with Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Stay with our live team as we bring you all the latest developments, analyses and reactions throughout the day.