Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be holding a meeting in Türkiye's megacity Istanbul on Friday, but the format of the meetings has not yet been determined, sources said Thursday.
Russia and Ukraine had been expected to meet on Thursday in the Turkish metropolis for their first direct peace talks in more than three years at the Dolmabahçe Palace on the banks of the Bosporus.
But as the day wore on without any concrete indications of timings, it remained unclear when the sides would meet, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggesting the meetings would happen on Friday.
Hopes for a breakthrough remained dim after Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face in Türkiye.
Zelenskyy, who flew to Ankara earlier on Thursday, said Putin's decision not to attend but to send what he called a "decorative" line-up showed the Russian leader was not serious about ending the war.
"We can't be running around the world looking for Putin," Zelenskyy said after meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Russia accused Ukraine of trying "to put on a show" around the talks.
Later on Thursday, Fidan met with the Russian delegation led by Vladimir Medinsky, adviser to Putin, Anadolu Agency (AA) and Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Zelenskyy named a Ukrainian delegation headed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
A series of meetings will be held in different formats in Istanbul on Friday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source told Reuters and AFP.
"Tripartite meetings between the U.S.-Ukraine-Türkiye and Russia-Ukraine-Türkiye are on the agenda," the source said.
However, "It is not yet certain whether there will be a four-party format" that includes the United States, Russia, Ukraine and Türkiye.
Rubio, who was in the southern Turkish city of Antalya for a NATO summit Thursday, was due in Istanbul on Friday.
He told reporters he would meet Ukraine's top diplomat, Andriy Sybiha, there, while a lower-level U.S. official would meet with the Russian delegation.
Sybiha was not thought to be part of the Ukrainian delegation to the talks.
Fidan will separately host the U.S. delegation, led by Rubio, the Ukrainian delegation and the Russian delegation on Friday, the sources said.
Rubio expressed hope that Türkiye would work to bring the Russian and Ukrainian delegations together.
Earlier on Thursday, Fidan and Rubio held talks on the sidelines of the NATO meeting, with the pair agreeing that "efforts would continue to be made to ensure direct negotiations between the parties."
Rubio said the U.S. would wait to see what happens in conversations Friday and then decide on a timeline for a meeting between President Donald Trump and Putin.
Trump said on Thursday that he will probably return to Washington on Friday after a tour of three Gulf countries, although he said his destination is unknown as of yet.
He had earlier hinted that he could stop in Istanbul for talks on Ukraine.
"We'll be leaving tomorrow, as you know. Almost destination unknown – because they'll be getting calls 'Could you be here? Could you be there?' But probably going back to Washington, D.C. tomorrow," Trump said during a trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
