President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to send a Ukrainian delegation headed by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to talks with the russian delegation in Istanbul. Zelenskyy said this at a press conference in Ankara (Turkey), Ukrainian News Agency reports.
He noted that a high-level Ukrainian delegation arrived in Turkey with the participation of Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Head of the President's Office Andrii Yermak, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrii Hnatov, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk, and representatives of all intelligence services.
Zelenskyy noted that the level of the russian delegation to talks with Ukraine demonstrated that they do not take the negotiations seriously, there are no real decision-makers among them.
"Despite the rather low level of representation of the russian delegation, but out of respect for President Trump, out of respect for the high level of the Turkish delegation and President Erdoğan, still wanting to demonstrate... to try to achieve at least the first steps towards de-escalation, the first steps towards ending the war, namely a ceasefire, I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul now, but not all of it... The delegation will be headed by the Minister of Defense, despite the fact that there will be no counterpart from the russian side there," he said.
Zelenskyy explained that the meeting should be in the format of a Turkish-American-Ukrainian-russian presence, and Umerov is part of the negotiating team and is fluent in Turkish, English, and russian.
Zelenskyy also noted that the mandate of the Ukrainian delegation is a ceasefire number one.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on Thursday, Zelenskyy arrived in Ankara, Turkey, to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and called the delegation approved by russian leader vladimir putin for negotiations with Ukraine a sham.
Late in the evening of May 14, the russian side announced that putin had approved the composition of the delegation for negotiations with Ukraine, headed by russian presidential assistant Vladimir Medinsky.
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