Is Putin playing chicken? Russian leader’s name is left off Kremlin’s list of officials jetting to Turkey for peace talks with Ukraine

The Kremlin has left despot Vladimir Putin’s name off the Russian delegation attending talks with Ukraine in Turkey. 

Moscow said that its envoy of four would not include the president who began the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is not currently known why Putin, who did not say whether he would attend, has not confirmed his appearance at the talks. 

US President Donald Trump will also not be attending the peace talks in Turkey, a US official said in response to the Kremlin’s announcement. 

Trump previously said that he may join the warring leaders in the Eurasian country if Putin were also to join. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among U.S. officials due to be in Turkey for the talks.

Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Volodymyr Zelensky will sit at the table only with the Russian leader. 

Putin proposed restarting direct talks ‘without preconditions’ on Thursday in Istanbul about the more than three-year war. Zelenskyy then challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Turkey in person. 

The four who will appear in Turkey, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he would travel to for peace talks, in his stead include adviser Vladimir Medinsky and Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin, who took part in the last talks held between the two sides in 2022 in the weeks following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Also named as part of the delegation was Igor Kostyukov, director of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the GRU, Russia’s Foreign Military Intelligence Agency. 

The Kremlin has left despot Vladimir Putin’s (pictured) name off the Russian delegation attending talks with Ukraine in Turkey

Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) will sit at the table only with the Russian leader

A view of damage as emergency workers carry out search and rescue operations after a Russian strike hit a nine-story residential building, injuring 13 people in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk, Ukraine on May 8, 2025

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday he would try to urge Putin to attend the talks.  

Lula has maintained close ties with Putin despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a position that has caused tensions with the Kyiv government and raised eyebrows in the West.

Lula on Wednesday stopped over in Moscow on his return from a state visit in China, where he told journalists: ‘When I get to Moscow, I’m going to try to talk to Putin. It won’t cost me anything to say, `Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate.’

They did not meet, but the Kremlin said he and Putin spoke by phone. The Kremlin said Lula referenced the peace talks and ‘intends to do everything in his power to ensure their success.’ 

It said Putin expressed gratitude for efforts to find ways to resolve the conflict. 

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

France’s foreign minister said he is working with US Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading ally of Trump, on a potential new package of what he called ‘devastating’ sanctions.

The measures would aim to ‘asphyxiate once and for all the Russian economy’ and squeeze Russia ‘by the throat,’ with possible 500% import tariffs on Russian oil and countries that buy it, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said. He told French broadcaster BFMTV he would see Graham on Thursday in Turkey.

A muzzle flash lights up pine trees as the British Army’s Archer Mobile Howitzer gun fires during training near Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle, Finland, in November

Mortar platoon soldiers with an 82mm mortar perform a combat mission as Ukrainian soldiers hold their positions in the snow-covered Serebryan Forest

Civilians take part in a military training activity day conducted by the Ukrainian Volunteer Army

Sanctions already adopted by Ukraine’s allies have failed to stop Putin.

Russian forces have been readying a fresh military offensive to maximize pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position, Ukrainian government and military analysts say.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Tuesday that Russia is ‘attempting to prolong negotiations to extract additional concessions from the United States and while making additional battlefield advances.’

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