A peace breakthrough in the Ukraine/Russia conflict is unlikely as Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. President Trump noted this absence and declared that peace in Ukraine would not happen without a face-to-face with him.
According to Reuters, Zelensky challenged the Russian president to meet with him in Turkey on Thursday for talks, but he did not show. Instead, he sent a delegation to Ankara. These would have been the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia since March 2022. Upon not showing up, Zelensky criticized this snub to the press.
Breitbart reported that Zelensky told reporters that Putin had shown personal disrespect to the talks host, Turkey’s President Erdogan, and that this proves Russia is not serious about peace. Zelensky said, “After we saw the level of the Russian delegation … unfortunately we saw they are not serious about negotiations.”
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova retaliated against Zelenskiy’s remarks and, according to CBS News, said during a televised address in Moscow that he was “pathetic” for persuading Putin to attend personally.
President Trump also commented on Putin’s absence, but was not surprised. Breitbart reported that President Trump reflected on this no-show, “Obviously he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go.”
He added, “He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there and I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
CBS News reported that President Trump, pushing for a swift end to the three-year war, might attend the talks in Turkey on Friday. During his visit to Qatar, President Trump said he would attend, “If something happened, I’d go on Friday,” and reiterated, “Nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be in Turkey on Friday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine and the way forward with European leaders.