Trump to miss crunch Ukraine-Russia summit as peace talks at risk of collapse

Donald Trump will not be going to Turkey for joint Russia-Ukraine peace talks on Thursday, a US official has said.

During his tour of the Middle East, Trump had said he may attend the peace talks if Vladimir Putin were to attend.

“I know he would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. If we could end the war, I’d be thinking about that,” Trump said on Wednesday.

A US official has said, however, that Trump will not attend the talks after Russia released its own list of attendees which did not include Putin.

Instead, Russia’s delegation will led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinksy, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Zelensky’s ultimatum

Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky issued a challenge to Putin to meet him personally in Turkey for negotiations.

Putin and Zelensky have not met since 2019 while Russia and Ukraine have not held negotiations since the invasion began in March 2022.

Putin had called for direct talks between Russian and Ukraine in Turkey “without pre-conditions”. This prompted Zelensky to announce he would go and expected the Russian president to attend too.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Turkey on Thursday. Personally,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post.

Zelensky later added that Trump presence “can really help” the situation as the US “can give important guarantees”.

A senior Ukrainian official said late on Wednesday that Zelensky would still attend the summit in Ankara.

Zelensky hosted EU leaders in Kyiv on Saturday where they issued a statement calling for a 30-day ceasefire. Russia rejected the proposal by calling for direct talks with Ukraine in Turkey.

What does this mean for negotiations?

With Trump not attending the talks, it remains to be seen how successful the negotiations will be.

Although the Russian delegation does not include Putin presently, the Russian president met attend talks on Friday or at a later stage.

Experts told The i Paper that maintaining uncertainty is just one tactic in Putin’s wider strategy.

Sir Laurie Bristow who served as the UK’s ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020 said “everything is a power game” to Putin.

“It’s obvious he’s trying to play Trump,” says Bristow. “He wants to, as far as possible, detach the US from Europe’s security. He thinks he’s got a big opportunity to do that… [and] that the longer this conflict goes on, the more chance there is of Trump losing interest.”

Early on Thursday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Turkey to share Zelensky’s peace vision and “coordinate positions during this critical week”.

This story is being updated.