Delegations of Türkiye, Ukraine and the U.S. started their meeting in Istanbul as part of the peace talks launched by Ankara to reach a solution to the war between Kyiv and Moscow.
At the meeting, which was being chaired by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace, were Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, U.S. envoy to Türkiye Tom Barrack, U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg, Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak and Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
Following this meeting, Ukraine and Russia will separately hold their first direct meeting on the conflict since 2022 with Turkish representatives on the same day.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed expectations for the peace talks after Moscow sent a low-profile delegation and both sides traded insults ahead of the negotiations, initially slated for Thursday.
"I want to be frank ... we don't have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow," Rubio said.
U.S. President Donald Trump had earlier also appeared to concede that progress in Türkiye was unlikely, saying there would be no movement toward ending the war until he met Vladimir Putin.
"I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said he did not expect a breakthrough, accusing Moscow of being "not serious" about ending the war.
Putin last week proposed direct negotiations between the two sides, but declined to respond when Zelenskyy challenged him to attend the talks in person.
The Russian side is being led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hawkish adviser to Putin who has questioned Ukraine's right to exist and led failed talks in 2022 at the start of the war. The Kremlin named three other negotiators – Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. Top diplomats like Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov or Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov – involved in previous talks with the United States – were also absent.
Ukraine's delegation will be led by Umerov, along with about a dozen deputy-level officials. He will be joined by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, deputy Security Service head Oleksandr Poklad, Deputy Chief of General Staff Oleksiy Shevchenko, and a few more deputy-level officials from the government's military bodies, according to Zelenskyy's decree.
Outside the Russian Consulate in Istanbul, Medinsky told reporters Russia saw the talks as a continuation of failed 2022 negotiations and that he was ready for "possible compromises."
"The delegation is committed to a constructive approach, to finding possible solutions and points of contact. The goal of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is to eventually establish long-term peace by eliminating the root causes of the conflict," he said.
Russia wants Ukraine to make massive territorial concessions, giving up even more land than it has lost on the battlefield, and has also at times sought the removal of Zelenskyy, pledges of military neutrality and limits on Ukraine's army.
Kyiv and the West reject those calls, but Zelenskyy has conceded that Ukraine might only get back some territory through diplomatic means.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022 and Moscow's army controls around a fifth of Ukraine's territory.
NATO member Türkiye is one of the most active countries working to ensure a permanent cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia. Its delicately balanced act of assuming a role as a mediator by keeping communication channels with both warring sides open provides a glimmer of hope in diplomatic efforts to find a solution and achieve peace in the Ukraine crisis. With its unique position of having friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine, Türkiye has won widespread praise for its push to end the war.
While Ankara has opposed international sanctions designed to isolate Moscow, it also closed its straits to prevent some Russian vessels from crossing through them.
Representatives for Moscow and Kyiv discussed an outline to end the war previously in Istanbul in March 2022.
But those talks broke down following Russia's retreat from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where hundreds of civilians were found dead following a month-long occupation by Russian forces.
Contact between the warring sides has been limited since and mainly dedicated to humanitarian issues such as prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of soldiers' remains.
Ankara was also a key player in the now-on-hold deal that allowed for the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea despite the blockade of its ports after Moscow launched its invasion in late February 2022.