Reuters. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday (May 15) to discuss peace efforts in the Russia-Ukraine war as uncertainty remained over whether Ukrainian and Russian delegations would hold a meeting in Istanbul.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a second-tier team of aides and deputy ministers to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, spurning Kyiv's challenge to go there in person to meet Zelenskiy.
Putin's no-show plunged prospects for the talks - which would be the first since the early weeks of the war - into confusion. Russia said they would take place in Istanbul in the second half of the day, but Turkey said no meeting was scheduled yet.
Zelenskiy, arriving in the Turkish capital Ankara, described the Russian line-up - excluding Putin, his foreign minister and his top foreign policy adviser - as "decorative". He said Ukraine would decide its next move on talks with Russia after he had met Erdogan.
Russia said its team was in Istanbul and ready for serious work, and accused Ukraine of "trying to put on a show" around the negotiations.
There was confusion in Istanbul, where reporters were gathered near the Dolmabahce palace that the Russians had specified as the talks venue.
