Kyiv: According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a Ukrainian team will participate in talks with Russia in Istanbul on Thursday, with the primary goal of achieving a ceasefire.
The Istanbul delegation, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, will include military and intelligence officers.
According to a Turkish Foreign Ministry official quoted by the German news agency dpa, Ukrainian and Russian diplomats are expected to meet in Istanbul today, according to DW News.
In a message on X, Zelenskyy stated, "I want to thank President @RTErdogan, his staff, and the people of Turkiye for their backing of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. " During our meeting today, President Erdogan restated his support for Ukraine and acknowledged Crimea as Ukrainian territory. We demonstrated the power and seriousness of our delegation, which includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Head of the Office of the President, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of the General Staff, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and representatives from all of our intelligence agencies.
I want to stress that Turkiye invited us with a delegation of equal status at the highest level. Unfortunately, after discovering the makeup of the Russian delegation, it became evident that they are not taking actual negotiations seriously, according to the message.
Despite expressing reservations about Russia's commitment to talks, Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine is moving forward with the discussions out of regard for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.
Zelenskyy stated that, despite the very low level of the Russian delegation, he decided to meet out of respect for President Trump, the high-level delegations in Turkey, President Erdogan, and a genuine desire to take at least the initial steps toward de-escalation and ending the conflict, beginning with a ceasefire. I have decided to send a Ukrainian team to Istanbul. Not all members of our delegation will participate: the Head of the Security Service and the Chief of the General Staff will not attend. However, the Ukrainian team in Istanbul will be led by the Minister of Defence, Rustem Umerov. He will be accompanied by military experts and intelligence personnel.
Zelenskyy also stated that Russia does not take the negotiations seriously and does not truly want to end the conflict.
Our delegation's mission is clear: ceasefire is priority number one. I am convinced that Russia is not serious about these discussions and does not truly want to stop the conflict. But we'll see if they're ready to reveal anything during the discussions, Zelenskyy said.
