Trump on Putin skipping Türkiye talks: 'Why would he go if I'm not going?'
Photo: US President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump believes that Russia's Vladimir Putin did not come to the talks in Türkiye because he was not there, Sky News reports.
Answering a journalist's question about Putin's absence, Trump said: "Why would he go if I'm not going?"
"I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there," the US president said.
Putin did not come to Istanbul
Russian leader Vladimir Putin proposed to resume direct talks with Ukraine on May 15 in Istanbul. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready for a dialogue, but only with Putin himself, not with his representatives.
Zelenskyy will arrive in Türkiye today, May 15. He will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. After that, Zelenskyy will wait for Putin and is ready to fly to Istanbul if Putin arrives there.
For a long time, Moscow did not disclose the composition of the Russian delegation to the talks in Türkiye, but on May 14, it became known that Putin would not go. The Russian delegation will be headed by Putin's aide, Vladimir Medinsky, who participated in the 2022 talks.
As informed sources told RBC-Ukraine, Zelenskyy will determine the next steps in the negotiations after talking to Erdoğan.
Read more about what is known about the talks between Ukraine and Russia in Türkiye on May 15 in RBC-Ukraine's article.
