Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly said he will only meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and not with other Russian officials at peace talks scheduled for Istanbul this week, which US President Donald Trump said he may drop in on.
Trump's offer to join Ukraine-Russia talks slated for May 15 prompted a call between US and European diplomats who continue to seek a path leading to an end to the war, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
"Don't underestimate Thursday in Turkey," Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for an official visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, referring to prospective talks in Istanbul.
"I was thinking about flying over. I don't know where I am going be on Thursday," Trump said. "I've got so many meetings.… There's a possibility there, I guess, if I think things can happen," he said.
SEE ALSO: Trump Signs Economic Deal With Saudis On First Day Of Mideast TourZelenskyy said he is ready to meet Putin in Istanbul on May 15.
There has been no response from the Kremlin to his offer, and Moscow has yet to comment on Trump's suggestion that he may join the talks, leading to speculation over who from Russia will actually be present in Turkey.
Reuters quoted a Ukrainian presidential adviser on May 13 as saying Zelenskyy, who also proposed a full and unconditional cease-fire in an attempt to bring a full peace agreement closer, would only meet with Putin and not other members of a Russian delegation.
The European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on May 13 Putin wouldn't "dare" to show up at the meeting as "Russia is clearly playing games, trying to buy time."
"I don't think they (Russia) are interested in peace. They are still bombing Ukraine. If they were interested in peace, they could stop right now," Kallas told reporters at a democracy summit in Copenhagen.
Sources told US media outlets that senior Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg will travel to Istanbul for the talks, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be in Turkey for a NATO meeting of foreign ministers.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
European Leaders Urge Russia To Agree To Cease-Fire
In the past, Putin has questioned Zelenskyy's legitimacy.
"If Putin shows up in Istanbul, it would already be a defeat. Simply entering negotiations with Zelenskyy would signal a loss for him -- especially if he arrives under pressure, to a summit he clearly never planned to attend," Alexander Friedman, a Russian political observer and historian, told Current Time on May 13.
"Most likely, Russia won't be able to offer anything that would satisfy the Americans, the Ukrainians, or the Europeans. That could mark the end of the negotiations altogether."
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
Grieving Families Hit With Expensive Funerals In Overcrowded Ukrainian Cemeteries
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on May 12 with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss Moscow's direct talks with Kyiv, a proposal that came from Putin at the weekend, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
It remained unclear who from the Russian side would take part in the direct talks, which would be the first between the two sides since March 2022, in the early days of the full-scale war launched by Russia the previous month.
Oleh Saakyan, a political commentator who spoke with Current Time, said both Ukraine and Europe know they cannot trust Putin and that he likely has begun preparing a new stage of the war and strengthened his positions through talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Moscow last week.
"The whole cease-fire and talks spectacle has been staged for one spectator -- Trump -- in order to expose Putin as someone you can't do business with," said Saakyan, who also cast doubt on the prospect of Putin traveling to Istanbul or any agreements coming from there.
"The focus is likely now to shift toward the trans-Atlantic axis and the readiness of the West to actually and jointly impose sanctions on Russia," he said. "This is key now, and it will greatly shape the future of talks."
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, told the Izvestia media outlet that the talks between Moscow and Kyiv can move further than they did in the 2022 discussions.
"If the Ukrainian delegation shows up at these talks with a mandate to abandon any ultimatums and look for common ground, I am sure that we could move forward even further than we did," Izvestia quoted Kosachev as saying.