{"id":137633,"date":"2025-05-16T09:41:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-trump-says-hell-meet-putin-as-soon-as-possible-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T09:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:41:57","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-trump-says-hell-meet-putin-as-soon-as-possible-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-trump-says-hell-meet-putin-as-soon-as-possible-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump says he\u2019ll meet Putin \u2018as soon as possible\u2019 – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kyiv and Moscow have sent delegations to Istanbul for the first direct peace talks in more than three years
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Donald Trump <\/a>has said he will meet Vladimir Putin <\/a>as soon as possible, as delegations from the US, Ukraine and Russia gather in Turkey for critical peace talks<\/a>.
Hopes for the Istanbul talks – the first direct meeting in three years – are low after Vladimir Putin declined to join the talks at Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s invite, sending instead a low level team headed by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky. Mr Zelensky\u2019s team will be led by defence minister Rustem Umerov.<\/a>
Secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is in Turkey but won\u2019t sit in the talks, said the US doesn\u2019t \u201chave high expectations”.
Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved before he and Mr Putin \u201cget together\u201d. Asked when this meeting could happen, Mr Trump told a Qatar business summit on Friday morning: \u201cAs soon as we can set it up.\u201d
He added of the Istanbul talks: \u201cThey all said Putin was going, Zelensky was going. And I said, if I don’t go, I guarantee Putin [won\u2019t be] going.\u201d
A US-Ukraine-Turkey meeting got underway before 10am local time (9am BST), with a Russia-Ukraine-Turkey meeting scheduled for 12:30pm local time (10:30am BST). <\/a>
A meeting of EU leaders is underway in Albania, where the war in Ukraine is set to dominate the agenda.
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Albania for the European Political Community Summit, which will also be attended by the leaders of France, Germany and Britain.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, also present, said that it is a good thing that the Ukrainians have come to the negotiating table in Istanbul and added that Russian President Vladimir now has to play ball.
“All the pressure is on him,” Rutte said, speaking at a meeting of EU leaders in Albania<\/strong>. He added that Putin had made a mistake by sending a low-level delegation to talks in Turkey.
Other topics at the summit will include security, democracy, migration and EU enlargement.
Senior Ukrainian officials held a meeting in Istanbul on Friday with US envoy Keith Kellogg and senior aides to the French, British and German leaders, Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media.
Mr Yermak attended the meeting along with foreign minister Andriy Sybiha and defence minister Rustem Umerov – the latter of whom is due to be part of Ukraine\u2019s delegation for talks with Russia.
One week ago today, nobody foresaw that we may see the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine today.
While they have not yet begun, a time has now been scheduled: 12:30pm local time (10:30am BST).
It began last weekend, when Vladimir Putin called for direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in Turkey on Thursday – talks which did not take place.
Volodymyr Zelensky upped the ante, offering to meet Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump face-to-face in a three way meeting in Istanbul. Moscow confirmed that the Russian president would not attend the talks.
This prompted Mr Zelensky to blast the Moscow delegation – led by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky – as \u201clow-level\u201d and \u201cstand-in props\u201d.
Donald Trump told reporters that progress in Ukrainian peace talks is unlikely before he meets with Putin. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said the US does not have \u201chigh expectations\u201d for the talks.
On Thursday, Mr Zelensky said a delegation led by defence minister Rustem Umerov would be sent to Ukraine. Kyiv had hoped Washington would note that Ukraine appears to be taking the talks more seriously – but there has been no such acknowledgement.
Today, it appears Istanbul talks may now be getting underway. A US-Ukraine-Turkey meeting began at around 9am BST, with the Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled for 10:30am.
We\u2019ll bring you all the latest updates throughout the day.
US, Ukrainian and Turkish delegations began a meeting in Istanbul on Friday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said, amid efforts to reach a peace agreement.
The delegations include foreign ministers from the three countries and other senior officials. They are being held at a venue on the grounds of Dolmabahce Palace on Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait.
Donald Trump has said he will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin \u201cas soon as he can\u201d, adding that it is \u201ctime for us to just do it\u201d when asked about ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking from a business summit in the United Arab Emirates this morning, Trump said he knew Vladimir Putin would not have gone to the meeting set for Turkey today.
\u201cI said, you know, they all said Putin was going, Zelensky was going. And I said, If I don’t go, I guarantee Putin [won\u2019t be] going,\u201d Trump said.
\u201cI understand that \u2026. we’re going to get it done. We\u2019ve got to get it done. 5000 young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.\u201d
Asked when he thought he would meet up with Putin, Trump said: \u201cAs soon as we can set it up.\u201d
\u201cI was going to, I would actually leave here and go\u201d he said, but said he also wanted to see his newborn grandson.
Vladimir Putin has sent his aide, Vladimir Medinsky, to head the Russian delegation which Mr Zelensky described as \u201cdecorative\u201d and a \u201ctheatre prop\u201d.
He has built his career on an ultra-patriotic slant on Russian history, rising through the ranks of the Kremlin to become one of Putin\u2019s most trusted advisers.
The 54-year-old led a previous round of direct negotiations with Ukraine in 2022. He previously served as the Minister of Culture from 2012 to 2020, when he became a presidential aide.
Mr Medinsky, who chairs the ultra-patriotic Russian Military Historical Society, was behind a new history textbook for schools which reflects Putin’s historical view: pride at the achievements of the superpower Soviet Union, indignation at the humiliations of the Soviet collapse, and acclaim for the “rebirth” of Russia under the former KGB spy’s rule which began on the last day of 1999.
The textbooks also include the Kremlin\u2019s version of the war in Ukraine, saying Moscow was \u201cgathering Russian lands from the \u201cultra-nationalistic state\u201d of Ukraine, and claimed Russia \u201csaved peace\u201d when it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Medinsky has also repeatedly rejected any historical case for Ukraine to exist as its own state, claiming the idea was created by the Austrian Empire.
The first vehicles have arrived at the Dolmabahce Palace, the former residence of Ottoman sultans which is hosting a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.
Among them were an armored vehicle, an ambulance, two white minibuses and several black cars arriving at the venue on the grounds of the palace on Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait.
A Turkey-US-Ukraine meeting is scheduled for 10:45am local time (8:45am BST), before the Turkey-Russia-Ukraine meeting gets underwat at 12:30 (10:30am BST), according to Turkish news agency Anadolu.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio is in Turkey for a critical day of international diplomacy.
But he won\u2019t be playing a direct role in the talks.
Instead, Michael Anton, the US director for policy planning, will represent the US in talks between Ukraine and Russia, a US state department spokesperson has told the BBC.
It\u2019s another blow for Volodymyr Zelensky, who had hoped that sending a higher-level delegation than the Russian side – and offering to meet Vladimir Putin directly – would reveal to Washington that Moscow is not serious about peace.
The White House appears to have accepted Moscow\u2019s decision not to send a high-level delegation to the talks, itself sending a lower-level representative into the room.
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