Putin: decided to compose the Russian delegation – talks with Ukraine

THE Vladimir Putin He concluded his decision on the composition of the Russian delegation to travel to Turkey to take part in the negotiations with Ukraine, which will take place in Constantinople.

As it leaked from the Chimneyhead of the Russian delegation will be the consultant of the Russian president Vladimir Mentinskywho led the previous rounds of negotiations with Ukraine in 2022.

With him will be the Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail GaluzinDeputy Minister of Defense Alexander fomin and the Igor kostyukovHead of the Russian Military Information Service (GRU).

The decree also named a A group of expertsincluding senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign and Defense and the Presidential Administration.

A few hours before the composition of the Russian delegation became known, the leak was released that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would not participate in talksSo he would not travel to Constantinople as well. In any case, Vladimir Putin himself had been ruled out to Turkey, though Donald Trump, in his statements, had implied that a summit could be held in the neighboring country.

Shortly after the Russian president’s decision, there was the first reaction from the US, with a spokesman for the US president announcing that Donald Trump would not even go to the city of Turkey. The Republican president is touring the Arab states for trade agreements and had stated that if Putin traveled to Constantinople, he would also give the “present” himself.

The backdrop and thriller preceding

Russo-Ukrainian negotiations are expected to take place in Istanbul on Thursday 15 May. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said On May 14, their form “has not yet been finalized”. It is noted that these are the first direct talks between Moscow and Kiev from the spring of 2022, when the two sides tried to agree on a ceasefire in the first weeks of the war. Since the beginning of 2025, under pressure from the government of the US president Donald TrumpRussia and Ukraine have begun dialogue – but so far it has been indirect, with representatives of the warring countries meeting separately with the Americans. Meanwhile, US representatives are expected to come to Turkey, but it is not yet clear whether they will attend the meetings between Russians and Ukrainians immediately.

In update on May 13, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said That the composition of the Russian delegation will be announced “as soon as the President deems it necessary”. A day later, he said that “nothing has changed in this plan” and “so far no mandate has been given (to disclose the synthesis of the delegation).”

The Washington Post, citing an anonymous “former high -ranking Kremlin official”, reported on the evening of May 13 that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Yuri Usakov would represent Russia. Usakov himself refused to answer an immediate question on the afternoon of May 14th on whether to attend the talks in Istanbul. The Russian newspaper “Kommersant” wrote on the night of May 14, without claiming a specific source that Lavrov will not be in the dealership.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski will definitely go to Turkey – He also said it as soon as Putin made his proposal for conversations. The Ukrainian president intends to discuss a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners. At the same time Zelenski has stressed that Putin is the only person he is ready to chat face to face from the Russian side.

In the meantime, Zelenski will fly first to the anchor And not in Constantinople and will meet there with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – and, obviously, he will be waiting for news from Putin. “” In order not to play the Russian Federation with the cities and say that Putin is not ready to fly to Ankara, but only in Constantinople, I want to say that if Putin flies in Constantinople and not the Turkish capital, I will tell the Turkish capital.

It is not known who will talk to the Russians instead of Zelenski if Putin does not come. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Simbicha is already in Turkey – he flew to Antalya to attend an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

By the US; Foreign Minister Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Whitkov, as well as another special envoy, Keith Kloger, will travel to Turkey. Rubio and Whitkov will arrive in Constantinople on May 16 – and not at 15. Donald Trump has also stated that he is also willing to come to Constantinople. But, as Klogk explained, this will only happen if Putin travels there. Trump is currently on a trip to the Middle East, scheduled to be completed on May 15 in the United Arab Emirates. On May 14, the US president said he was “busy”, but said he was willing to change his program if needed to “save lives”. He also said that he still does not know if Putin will come to Turkey. “He would like to be there and he is likely … I don’t know if he will be there if I’m not there. We will find out, “Trump said.

Talks were scheduled in less than a week – Neither Moscow, Kiev nor Washington had publicly talked about such plans in early May. On May 8, shortly after the Ukrainian Parliament’s ratification of the US Minerals Agreement, Trump again reminded his initiative to cease fire 30 days between Russia and Ukraine to start negotiations. Putin had previously stated that he agreed on such a truce, “but there are shades” – in other words, he replied essentially by saying no. On May 11, after European leaders visited Kiev, They demanded from Russia to agree immediately on a ceasefire of firethreatening that otherwise they will impose new harsh sanctions.

A few hours later, on the night of May 11, Putin suggested that negotiations be launched in Constantinople (the Russian side presents them as those who were interrupted in 2022). At the same time, the Russian president did not refer to a ceasefire.

In the conversations in Istanbul in 2022Russia and Ukraine have been close to reaching a peace agreement. Her plan, which was never signed, was drawn up on April 15. Two years later, the text was published in the US media. The document provided for a ban on NATO’s accession to NATO and the reduction of its armed forces in exchange for security guarantees by the US, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia. Ukraine had to pledge that it would not try to recover Crimea militarily, while the regime of the self -proclaimed “Donetsk and Luhank People’s Republics” (then not yet attached to Russia) would be the subject of separate negotiations. In the summer of 2022, after the main talks collapsed, the two sides were able to agree on a “cereal agreement” – an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export freely cereals through its ports to the Black Sea for one year. Moscow and Kiev did not sign this agreement between them, but separately with the mediators, Turkey and the UN.