The Kremlin has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be going to Istanbul on Thursday for a meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On late Wednesday night, the Kremlin ultimately disclosed the individual who would represent Moscow in what was intended to be the initial face-to-face discussions between the Ukrainian and Russian leaderships.
The Russian team will be headed by Vladimir Medinskiy, President Putin’s advisor, who previously represented Russia during the initial negotiation round in Istanbul back in March 2022.
In addition to Medinsky, Russia will also have Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin, and Igor Kostyukov, who leads Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU), representing their country.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will not be travelling to Turkey either.
Moscow waited until the end of the day on Wednesday to announce who would attend the Istanbul talks with Ukraine.
Last weekend, Putin proposed that Russia and Ukraine engage in face-to-face negotiations. In response, Ukraine’s president quickly stated his willingness to go personally to Istanbul for a meeting with Putin—their first encounter since Russia launched its all-out assault on Ukraine earlier this year.
In his evening address on Wednesday, released before the Kremlin announced the delegation line-up, Zelenskyy said he was waiting for the final list before deciding on Ukraine’s course of action.
Ukraine’s leader mentioned that his country has held multiple discussions about the arrangement for the upcoming meeting in Turkey. He stated, “I’m anticipating seeing who will represent Russia before deciding on our next actions. Up until now, the messages we’ve received through various media outlets do not seem convincing.”
US President Donald Trump mentioned in recent days that he was thinking about visiting Istanbul for the meeting. Zelenskyy stated that having the US president present could serve as “the strongest argument.”
"A week can truly make a significant difference – or perhaps it won’t. At present, everything is still being determined," he remarked prior to the announcement from the Kremlin regarding their team.
Previously, Trump mentioned that the U.S. might impose further stringent sanctions on Moscow if they fail to strike a deal with Kiev to halt their comprehensive assault on Ukraine.
Who is Vladimir Medinsky?
Putin’s advisor Medinski strongly backs Russia’s comprehensive assault on Ukraine. In January 2025, he edited a new history book titled "The Military History of Russia," where he portrays Moscow’s conflict with Ukraine as part of the former Soviet Union’s struggle against Nazism. The publication characterizes Russia’s actions as an essential response to provocations from the West.
Aimed at schoolchildren, the book claims Russia was "forced" to invade Ukraine in February 2022 over NATO’s expansion policy and the 2014 ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, which it labelled "a Western-backed coup".
The multi-part series refers to Ukraine as an "aggressive anti-Russian vanguard" and highlights "heroic deeds on the battlefield." It also draws historical comparisons between contemporary Russian military strategies and those employed by the Soviet forces during World War II, known to Russians as "the Great Patriotic War."
In 2014, when Russia initially invaded Ukraine, Medinsky, who was serving as Russia’s culture minister at the time, released a statement asserting that “Russia does not belong to Europe,” contending that the moral standing of the remainder of the continent was lower.
This was not the first instance where Medinsky attempted to showcase Russia's supremacy over other countries. Back in 2013, he claimed that Russia’s “tenacity” through all the disasters of the 20th century suggested that Russians possess “an additional chromosome.”