This week, it was speculated that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky could meet Russia President Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday-if the Russian leader decides to attend the summit he himself suggested.
The possibility of the two men finding themselves face to face, but may not happen after the Kremlin delegates list does not mention Putin.
CNN contacted Kremlin to clarify whether Putin will not participate in the long awaited talks – after the Russians have spent days to prepare justifications and excuses for the absence of Putin.
It is unlikely that conversations produce immediate results and it is almost certain that they will not bring the dodge “agreement” that US President Donald Trump has been promising since returning to the White House in January.
However, despite the caveats, a direct meeting between Kiev and Moscow, whatever level, would constitute a milestone in the conflict. It is not known whether the two countries have kept direct conversations since shortly after Moscow launched its unlawful invasion and on a large scale of Ukraine in February 2022.
Here’s what we know.
How did we arrive at this point?
The conversations were initially proposed by Putin in response to the Ultimo Freach or Sanctions made by Ukraine’s Moscow Allies on Saturday, when Germany, France, Poland, and the United Kingdom leaders demanded that Russia would accept a 30-day ceasefire proposal or face a new round of “massive” sanctions.
Putin ignored the ultimatum, proposing, instead, “direct conversations” between Russia and Ukraine.
This was probably a Putin postponement tactic – something he has successfully used several times in the past. But it seems to have shot out of the culathra.
The Europeans and Ukraine initially said that there could be no conversations before a ceasefire was agreed, but that changed rapidly when US President Donald Trump was involved. In a social media publication, Trump publicly urged Zelensky to “hold the meeting now !!!”.
Putin was not suggesting a meeting alone with his hated Ukrainian counterpart. He said he wanted a restart of the conversations that took place in the spring of 2022 and in which high -level diplomats participated, but not the leaders themselves.
But Zelensky increased his parade by announcing that he himself would travel to Turkey and appealed to Putin to do the same. The Ukrainian leader made it clear that he would not meet any other Russian guardian, arguing that “everything in Russia depends on Putin.”
Trump, currently traveling through the Middle East, increased the pressure suggesting that he could also go, “if it is useful.” This idea was supported by Zelensky, who said Ukraine would be “grateful” by Trump’s presence. Trump also told CNN this Wednesday that Putin “I would like me to be there.”
But two White House officials told CNN that Trump is not planning to travel to Turkey later this week, in a decision that closes the door to days of speculation that Putin could join at the negotiation table.
If Putin decides to be present – what most Kremlin’s observers consider it unlikely – they will be undermining their own false narrative that Zelensky and his government are illegitimate.
But if you decide to stay home, Putin will give Zelensky the opportunity to say, once again, that Russia is not serious about peace.
This message would be directly directed to Trump. Kiev and his European allies have long been saying that Putin is seriously interested in negotiating peace.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his belief otherwise, although he began to express his doubts in recent weeks, wondering if Putin wants peace after talking to Zelensky on the fringes of Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican last month. Zelensky’s show sitting at the table of an empty chair would probably reinforce this point.
This is also, probably, the main reason Zelensky suggested a personal meeting with Putin, who, according to Ukrainian and Western secret services, had already ordered his murder.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and US President Donald Trump are during Vatican Pope Francis’ funeral, Saturday, April 26, 2025 (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP via CNN Newsource)
What may be on the table?
Both sides are so distant that it is not clear what the theme of the conversations would be – if they would be held.
Zelensky said on Tuesday that all that was not an agreement on an unconditional ceasefire would be a failure.
Putin, in turn, said that although Russia does not exclude that “during these conversations there is the possibility of organizing a new kind of truce, a new ceasefire,” conversations will aim to eliminate the “deep causes” of the conflict.
The “deep causes” that cites include longtime Russian complaints that include the existence of Ukraine – previously part of the Soviet Union – as a sovereign state and the expansion from born to east since the end of the Cold War.
None of them are negotiable for Ukraine or their allies.
What happened the last time Ukraine and Russia spoke to each other?
The latest direct conversations known between Kiev and Moscow took place in Turkey and Belarus, in the spring of 2022, when it was clear that Putin’s initial plan to conquer all Ukraine and install a new puppet government in Kiev within a few days had been catastrophically bad.
This left Russia to drift and try to achieve its goals through negotiations.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US -based conflict observer, said the agreement proposed by Moscow required Ukraine to renounce its sovereignty and would have made Ukraine completely powerless to any future attacks.
When the Ukrainian forces began to release parts of northern Ukraine, finding clear evidence of massacres and other atrocities as they advanced, the conversations began to collapse.
The Russian abuse discovered in a particular city – Bucha, north of Kiev – horrified the world and hardened the determination of the Ukrainian people.
Civil bodies lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of Kiev, after the Russian army withdrew from the city (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
If not Putin, who else can go?
Shortly after Zelensky challenged the Russian leader to travel to Türkiye, Kremlin began preparing the ground for Putin not to attend.
“This is pure spectacle, it is theatricality. Because high-level meetings, especially in such a difficult situation, are not at all organized in this way,” Russian Federation vice president Konstantin Kosachev told Russian state television station Russia 24 on Monday.
According to Kosachev, negotiators will be present “at a technical-specialized level”.
Kremlin later said that Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s senior advisor and a member of the country’s Supreme Council office, would lead the delegation. The advisor previously headed the Russian delegation in 2022, when Kiev and Moscow had their last known direct conversations.
This time, the risks are bigger, since both Trump and Ukraine’s European allies said they would impose more sanctions on Moscow if it did not agree with the ceasefire.
What else do we know about conversations?
Little. The Turkish government stated earlier this week that it was prepared to provide “all kinds of support, including mediation and reception of negotiations, to achieve peace” in Ukraine.
In the past, Turkey played the role of bridge between Moscow and Kiev, namely when he measured the Black Sea Cereal agreement, which guaranteed the safe passage of Ukrainian ships that carry food exports – a rare diplomatic success in brutal conflict. Russia withdrew from the pact in 2023.
As a member of NATO, Turkey is involved in the conflict, but is also seen as more receptive to Russia, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prior to his “special relationship” with Putin.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, and his sent to Foreign Affairs, Steve Witkoff, both intended to be in Istanbul for the talks, said a high-ended Trump administration, a statement confirmed by another source familiar with the plans.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also in Türkiye to attend an informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers.
From Tuesday, the plan was for US officials to observe Turkey’s conversations between Ukrainians and Russians.
Rubio, Kellogg and Witkoff participated in some of the previous rounds of conversations in Saudi Arabia, in which they acted as intermediaries, gathering separately with the Russian delegation and, a few days later, with the Ukrainians.
This time, the fact that the two delegations can find face to face is significant – even if your goal is more and more satisfying Trump than reaching a true agreement.
