Russia will be represented at the talks in Turkey by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putinʼs foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. Putin himself is unlikely to attend.
This is reported by The Washington Post, citing a former senior Kremlin official.
The Americans will be represented in Istanbul by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg. Kellogg said that US President Donald Trump would fly to the talks only if Putin came to the meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Putin to personally come to the talks in Istanbul — there has been no response yet. On the afternoon of May 13, Zelensky stressed that Putinʼs non-arrival is the final point of demonstrating that Russia is not ready for the end of the war. So if Putin does not come to the meeting in Turkey, the US and Europe should introduce new packages of sanctions against Russia, he believes.
The US hopes that Putin will come to the meeting in Turkey. According to Keith Kellogg, the Trump team has already prepared a list of key topics that they believe the parties should discuss. First and foremost, it concerns a ceasefire.
Other topics include the issue of the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia, control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the impossibility of Ukraine joining NATO "in the near future", the return of Ukrainian children, as well as the deployment of Western contingents and peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Negotiations in Turkey
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky informed on May 10 that a full ceasefire with the Russian Federation should begin on May 12 for at least 30 days. According to him, the ceasefire should be comprehensive, that is, in the air, at sea, and on land, and monitoring can be provided together with the United States.
On the night of May 11, Putin proposed resuming direct talks between Ukraine and Russia, without mentioning the 30-day ceasefire that is due to take effect on May 12. Zelensky responded that he would personally wait for Putin in Turkey if Russia ceases fire.
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