Putin skips Ukraine peace talks as Zelensky arrives in Turkey

What will happen now?

With just hours to go before high-level bilateral peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were set to begin, a wrench was thrown into the process: Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be one of the attendees according to a statement from the Kremlin. 

Russia’s peace negotiation delegation

The Kremlin waited until the last moment to release a list of delegates it was planning to send to Turkey, and when it finally did late into May 14th, there were several key names missing—including Putin and other very important figures. 

Who else was missing from the list

Earlier reports indicated that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov would attend the high-level peace talks in Turkey. However, neither was on the official list of Russian delegates published by the Kremlin according to The Kyiv Independent. 

Who Russia sent to discuss peace

Putin appointed Vladimir Medinsky to lead the talks. “The Russian delegation will also consist of Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Military Intelligence Director Igor Kostyukov, and Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin,” The Kyiv Independent’s Martin Fornusek explained. 

Important but not the right people

All of the Russian delegates sent to talk peace in Turkey are important political players in their own right in Russia, but they are not Vladimir Putin, nor are they the two major individuals who attended the American-led ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia in March, Lavrov and Ushakov.

A significant moment in the conflict

The absence of Putin in Turkey is a significant moment in the peace process. The talks were called by the Russian President after weeks of rebuffing Ukrainian, European, and American attempts to achieve a ceasefire in Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

Putin challenged Zelensky to meet

Instead of engaging with the prospect of an unconditional ceasefire, Putin challenged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to direct talks in Istanbul “without any preconditions” on May 15th according to The Independent. Why Putin has decided to skip the talks is a mystery. 

Putin never planned to meet Zelensky

The Moscow Times reported that unnamed sources claimed that Putin never planned to meet with Zelensky one-on-one in Turkey. Moreover, the news outlet reported that Putin has long tried to discredit Zelensky as Ukraine’s leader, which may have played a role in his decision to stay in Russia. 

Zelensky still traveled to Turkey

Despite the snub, Zelensky arrived in Ankara, Turkey’s capital city, on May 15th. He was scheduled to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but whether or not the Ukrainian President would meet with the Russian peace delegation was unclear. 

Thoughts on the Russian delegation

"The level of the Russian (delegation) is not known officially to me but from what we see, it looks more like it's on a decorative level," Zelensky told reporters at the Ankara airport after his arrival in Turkey according to Reuters.