While Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has travelled to Turkey ahead of ceasefire talks with Russia, Vladimir Putin has refused to go.
The Russian president has not even sent his senior ministers to attend, drawing criticism from senior international politicians.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was in Turkey for meetings with Nato counterparts including the US’s top diplomat Marco Rubio, who were all there “to ensure that we get a just and lasting, enduring peace” for Ukraine.
“The readiness for that peace is demonstrated by President Zelensky being here in Turkey as well,” he said.
“And of course, we watched closely as we head to these talks, noting the Russian low-level individuals who are coming to represent the Russian side.”
The Russian delegation is being led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led a previous round of unsuccessful negotiations with Ukraine in 2022. He previously served as the Minister of Culture from 2012 to 2020.
Medinsky was behind a new history textbook for schools which reflect Putin’s historical view: pride at the achievements of the superpower Soviet Union, indignation at the humiliations of the Soviet collapse, and acclaim for the “rebirth” of Russia under the former KGB spy’s rule which began on the last day of 1999.
He is chairman of the ultra-patriotic Russian Military Historical Society.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is not attending, and neither is Defence Minister Andrey Belousov: instead, their deputies are going.
Deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin is attending, and he also took part in the last talks held between the two sides in 2022 in the weeks following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Mikhail Galuzin, deputy foreign minister, is also attending.
Also among the Russian delegation which arrived on Thursday was Igor Kostyukov, the director of Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU. The GRU is one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world.
Mr Putin on Sunday proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul “without any preconditions”. However, late last night, the Kremlin said Mr Putin’s name was not on the list of those attending.
Arriving in Ankara to meet Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mr Zelensky hit out at Moscow’s delegation for peace talks in Istanbul, describing it as “decorative”.
Ukraine will have military, diplomats and high level representatives at the Istanbul talks, he said, adding that Moscow failed to send a high-level 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,” he said. “We need to understand what kind of level the Russian delegation is, and what mandate they have and whether they can make any decisions.”
