Trump on Türkiye talks: Nothing will move forward until I meet with Putin

“I don’t know anything about the delegation. I haven’t even checked. Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I sit down. He was going to go, but he thought I was going. He wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t there,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, according to CNN correspondent Kait Maher.

Earlier on May 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Ankara for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after which he planned to decide on further steps regarding negotiations with the Russians.

The Ukrainian delegation in Türkiye includes Presidential Office head Andrii Yermak, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s SBU Security Service chief Vasyl Maliuk, as well as representatives from Ukraine’s defense forces and intelligence services.

The Kremlin has confirmed that dictator Vladimir Putin will not attend the talks with Ukraine. Instead, he has sent aide Vladimir Medinsky, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, and Chief of the General Staff’s Main Directorate Igor Kostyukov.

According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the talks between Ukraine and Russia could begin in the second half of May 15 in Istanbul.