President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the Presidential Complex in the capital, Ankara.
The two leaders are set to hold a bilateral meeting as Moscow and Kyiv prepare to hold cease-fire talks in Istanbul.
Zelenskyy said he would “think about what to do” on cease-fire talks after meeting Erdoğan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping the first direct talks between the warring sides since Moscow invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Türkiye in person, but the Kremlin has said its delegation at the talks will be led by Putin’s aide, Vladimir Medinsky, and include three other officials.
Zelenskyy said he had the impression Russia sent a “dummy” delegation with an unclear mandate to Türkiye.
“We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation and what their mandate is,” he said.”
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, National Intelligence Organization (MIT) director Ibrahim Kalın, and the president's chief adviser for foreign policy and security, Akif Çağatay Kılıç, also attended the meeting.
