“Where are the Ukrainians?” a Russian TV reporter wondered aloud during a live broadcast outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul late Thursday.
As the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years near, Moscow is shaping both the process and the narrative.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Turkey after challenging the Kremlin leader to show up for direct face-to-face negotiations, Putin didn’t bite, aiming instead to portray an orderly process leading to his – not Kyiv and Washington’s – goal of detailed and possible protracted negotiations for a broader peace agreement.
The head of Russia’s delegation, senior Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said they were there “on behalf of the president… to hold direct bilateral talks with Ukraine without preconditions.”
The message from the Russians was clear: We are here, we have a strategy, where are the Ukrainians?
Indeed, after Putin kept the world guessing for days whether he’d show up, for most of Thursday it was unclear who would represent Ukraine and what Kyiv’s plan was. Zelensky argued that that while he’d shown up, Russia’s leader had decided to stay away.
The Ukrainian president eventually named his defense minister Rustem Umarov to lead Ukraine’s delegation, but that delegation remained AWOL somewhere between Ankara and Istanbul for much of the day.
That left the field open to the Russians, surrounded by the world’s media outside their Istanbul consulate.
“The idea behind direct talks with the Ukrainian side is to achieve a lasting peace, sooner or later, while removing the root causes of the conflict,” Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said.
Medinsky’s talk of the “root causes” of the conflict – a mix of Russian grievances – is not Ukraine’s idea behind the talks, nor its European partner’s, nor the Trump administration’s. But the Kremlin has tried to seize the moment – while Putin’s top ministers rail against Ukraine’s president.
“First, Zelensky made some statements demanding that Putin attend in person. A nothing man. It’s clear to everyone – except perhaps to him and those pulling his strings,” said Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
