Zelensky Lands in Turkey, Putin Skips Meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Turkey today for what he hoped would be face-to-face negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, he was met with Putin’s underlings.

On Sunday, Putin first proposed direct talks with Ukraine to bring the three-year war to a close during a televised address.

“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”

Zelensky responded by challenging Putin to come to Istanbul himself for a face-to-face meeting.

“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy,” Zelensky said on X. “There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.”

Instead, Russia sent aides to negotiate with the Ukrainian leader, who described them as “stand-in props,” reported the BBC.

In response, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said “A clown and a loser is talking about respected people.”

Russia’s delegation will be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, but meetings are still not officially scheduled, according to the BBC.

So far, Zelensky has met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara.

President Donald Trump also said he was skipping the meetings because of scheduling conflicts, despite floating the possibility of attending earlier this week.

Trump said he doesn’t think it “was possible for Putin to go” if he himself wasn’t there.

“I actually said, why would he go if I’m not going?” Trump said, speaking at a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar during his four-day Gulf tour.

The President added that the war “has to stop.”

“We spent $350 billion there — just handed,” he said. “Nobody even knows where the money is. There’s no accounting.”

Trump added that Zelensky is the “greatest salesman, maybe in history” because “every time he came to the United States, he’d walk away with $100 billion.”

“That’s a good salesman, right?” Trump added. “Last time he didn’t do as well. He only got $60 billion.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is already in Istanbul for meetings with his NATO counterparts and he and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff were planning to be present for the Russia-Ukraine talks.