{"id":137551,"date":"2025-05-15T17:47:59","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T17:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-no-breakthrough-until-trump-meets-putin-rubio-says-after-zelenskyy-criticism-of-russian-props-sent-to-talks-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T17:47:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T17:47:59","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-no-breakthrough-until-trump-meets-putin-rubio-says-after-zelenskyy-criticism-of-russian-props-sent-to-talks-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-no-breakthrough-until-trump-meets-putin-rubio-says-after-zelenskyy-criticism-of-russian-props-sent-to-talks-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: No breakthrough until Trump meets Putin, Rubio says – after Zelenskyy criticism of Russian 'props' sent to talks – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, says the US has low expectations for Ukraine-Russia peace talks due to take place in Turkey. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was not taking peace seriously after Putin shunned talks. Listen to the Daily podcast as you scroll.
Thursday 15 May 2025 18:45, UK
Michael Clarke, our security and defence analyst, will be back on Friday afternoon for his weekly Q&A on the Ukraine war.
You can submit your question for him using the form at the top of this page.
Watch last week’s Q&A below:
Donald Trump says he’s not sure where he’ll be tomorrow amid calls for him to join Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey.
A senior White House official said last night that Trump wouldn’t visit Turkey after it was revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin was not attending talks.
But speaking just now from the United Arab Emirates (the third and final stop of Trump’s tour of the Middle East), the US president was coy when asked where he was heading to next.
“We’ll be leaving tomorrow,” he told reporters.
“It’s almost ‘destination unknown’. We’re getting calls, ‘could you be here? Could you be there?'”
“But we’re probably going back to Washington DC.”
Marco Rubio has been speaking in Turkey this evening after he attended a NATO meeting of foreign ministers.
The US secretary of state says he will be meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister and a delegation from Ukraine in Istanbul tomorrow.
It comes as officials from Ukraine and Russia are due to meet for direct talks today, but Rubio said the US “doesn’t have high expectations” for the negotiations.
“It’s my assessment that I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until the president [Trump] and President Putin interact directly on this topic,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the level of delegation sent by Russia, calling them “stand-in props”. Echoing these sentiments, Rubio said the level of the team sent by Russia “does not indicate a breakthrough”.
“I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m 100% wrong,” Rubio adds. “I hope tomorrow the news says they’ve agreed a ceasefire. But it’s not my assessment.”
He says that once talks in Istanbul had concluded tomorrow, the US would decide on a timeline for a potential Putin-Trump meeting.
We’ve just heard from Europe correspondent Adam Parsons<\/a>, who says today’s developments have been a “diplomatic triangle unlike anything else”.
“Normally, as we know, international diplomacy involves great choreography. It’s planes landing on time, convoys through cities, gripping grim photo opportunities and coordinated talks. 
“We haven’t got any of that here. What we’ve got is something that feels a bit of a mess, to be honest.”
Parsons says, on one side, the Ukrainian team in Ankara are asking for the Russians to meet them while, in Istanbul, the delegation from Moscow has been “twiddling its thumbs all day”.
“Zelenskyy says that the Russian group here are effectively hopeless, and that they don’t have the authority to progress any negotiations,” Parsons adds.
“The Russians say that isn’t true, and that they have all the authorisation and that they are ready to do a deal. 
“So it’s a difficult one to call about whether this is all showmanship, or whether this could be the chaos that leads to some kind of negotiation.”
On Vladimir Putin’s no-show, Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett<\/a> says the Russian leader is not “someone who responds or takes kindly to ultimatums or the demands of others – he likes to be the one in charge”.
For this reason, it was “pretty clear” that Putin was never going to fly to Turkey after Zelenskyy called on him to do so.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of sending “stand-in props” to peace talks in Turkey after Moscow confirmed Vladimir Putin would not attend. Zelenskyy had challenged Putin to meet him.
But how are Ukrainians feeling about the prospect of a possible end to the war?
Our international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn<\/a> is in Kyiv and joins Niall Paterson<\/a> to discuss if the country is ready to find a peace agreement with Russia.
It’s approaching 5pm in London, 7pm in Kyiv and Moscow. Here’s a rundown of the latest developments:
More to bring you now from Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin aide leading Russia’s low-level delegation in Istanbul.
He says Russia is “ready” to discuss “possible compromises” and is in a “working mood”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier called the Russian delegation “low-level” and “decorative”, but Medinsky says it actually consists of “chief officials of all relevant authorities”.
Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin aide leading Russia’s low-level delegation in Istanbul, has been giving a news conference of his own while Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking in Ankara.
He told reporters Russia views the latest talks as a continuation of the peace process started in 2022.
Putin set the delegation’s tasks and defined the negotiating position, after a meeting with the commanders of Russia’s “special operation”, Medinsky added – with “special operation” of course being the Kremlin’s term for the war and 2022’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
But Medinsky added Russia’s delegation is determined to find solutions and “points of contact” in Istanbul.
Zelenskyy has been arguing, of course, that that determination is fake – given the level of officials sent, and that Putin makes all the decisions in Russia.
With the news conference now over, let’s revisit a moment Volodymyr Zelenskyy hinted at when the talks in Istanbul could get under way.
The Ukrainian president confirmed that a Ukrainian delegation has been sent to Istanbul, and said a Turkish delegation will also be there.
“The American delegation party is in Istanbul, the meeting could happen tonight, maybe it will happen tomorrow,” he said.
But he once again points the blame in Russia’s direction, stating “everyone is waiting”.
“We did everything in our power, everyone is waiting on the other side, for the Russian side,” he adds.
“It is very important to bear in mind the essence of this meeting, the agenda of this meeting.”
The talks will involved Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the US, if they go ahead.
As the news conference wraps up, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asked a question by our international correspondent Alex Rossi<\/a>.
He asks the Ukrainian president where the peace process stands after Vladimir Putin’s no-show.
“We all want the peace process to start,” Zelenskyy says.
“We can argue about things but when the groups are working, it’s moving in the right direction, it’s a road to diplomacy.”
Zelenskyy goes on to say that “Europe, America, we are all together in this diplomacy”.
He stresses that the direction “has been chosen correctly”, adding “I’m sure there are no arguments in order to agree on things in a certain period of time, at least when it comes to a ceasefire”.
Away from the news conference for a moment, as we’ve just heard from the Turkish presidency.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Turkey is ready to host talks between the Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin when they are ready.
As we’ve been reporting, Erdogan met Zelenskyy for talks earlier today (see 12.28 post).
Zelenskyy had been hoping Russia’s president would attend talks in Istanbul, but has since been critical of the delegation it sent (see 15.14 post).
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Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, says the US has low expectations for Ukraine-Russia peace talks due to take place in Turkey. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was not taking peace seriously after Putin shunned talks. Listen to the Daily podcast as you scroll.Thursday 15 May 2025 18:45, UKMichael Clarke, our security and defence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}