ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Russia’s delegation arrived in Istanbul for peace talks with Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin was not part of the delegation, according to a list released by the Kremlin Wednesday night, prompting criticism from Western officials that Moscow isn’t serious about the peace effort.

Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, will lead the Russian delegation that will also include three other senior officials, the Kremlin said. Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as “experts” for the talks.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Russian leader to meet in person in Turkey. Zelenskyy said he would travel to Ankara, the Turkish capital, meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and wait for Putin.

Zelenskyy will sit at the table only with Putin, Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said.

Details about the Ukrainian delegation and whether they will meet their Russian counterparts are still unclear but is expected to be clarified after Zelenskyy and Erdogan meet, according to a Ukrainian official who requested anonymity to speak openly about the day’s plan.

Tass said that the talks were to take place in a presidential office on the Bosphorus.

Moscow offered talks instead of a ceasefire

Putin on Wednesday evening held a meeting with senior government officials and members of the delegation in preparation for the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov, and National Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu attended the meeting, among others.

Kyiv and its European allies had urged the Kremlin to agree to a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire as a first step toward peace. Putin effectively rejected the proposal, offering direct talks between Russia and Ukraine instead.

The Kremlin billed Thursday’s talks as a “restart” of peace negotiations that were held in Istanbul in the first weeks of the war in 2022 but quickly fell apart. Moscow accused Ukraine and the West of wanting to continue fighting, while Kyiv said Russia’s demands amounted to an ultimatum rather than something both sides could agree on.

Russia’s delegation then was also headed by Vladimir Medinsky.

Putin’s proposal came after more than three months of diplomacy kickstarted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the devastating war swiftly. The Trump administration in recent weeks indicated that it might walk away from the peace effort if there was no tangible progress soon.

Trump had pressed for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet in Istanbul but said Thursday he wasn’t surprised that Putin was a no-show. He brushed off Putin’s decision to not take part in the talks.

“I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there,” Trump said during a roundtable in Doha, Qatar

The U.S. and Western European leaders have threatened Russia with further sanctions if there is no progress in halting the fighting.

NATO ministers back Ukraine

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met with U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio and Senator Lindsey Graham in the Turkish city of Antalya late Wednesday night. Antalya on Thursday is hosting NATO foreign ministers to discuss new defense investment goals as the U.S. shifts its focus to security challenges away from Europe.

Sybiha reaffirmed Ukraine’s support for Trump’s mediation efforts and thanked the U.S. for its continued involvement, urging Moscow to “reciprocate Ukraine’s constructive steps” toward peace. “So far, it has not,” Sybiha said.

On Thursday morning, Sybiha also met with other European foreign ministers, including his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, who in a post on X reiterated the call for a ceasefire and the threat of “massive sanctions” if Russia doesn’t comply.

“We’re in a very difficult spot right now, and we hope that we can find the steps forward that provide for the end of this war in a negotiated way and the prevention of any war in the future,” Rubio said Thursday.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, also in Antalya for the NATO talks, accused Moscow of not being willing to to engage in a serious peace process.

“We have one chair empty, which is the chair of Vladimir Putin. So now I guess the entire world has realized that there’s only one party not willing to engage in serious peace negotiations, and that certainly is Russia,” Valtonen said.

Barrot echoed her sentiment: “In front of Ukrainians there is an empty chair, one that should have been occupied by Vladimir Putin,” he said. “Vladimir Putin is dragging his feet and in all evidence does not want to enter into these peace discussions.”

—-

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels; Illia Novikov and Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia; and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report.