Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Arrives In Turkey To Meet Erdogan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy/PHOTO via X @ZelenskyyUa

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Thursday to meet with President Tayyip Erdogan.

Meanwhile in Istanbul, Russian and Ukrainian officials are separately expected to start peace negotiations.

Reported by Reuters, Zelenskyy landed at Esenboga Airport in Ankara and he is scheduled to meet Erdogan at 10.00 local time, Thursday, May 15.

Meanwhile, it is not clear how the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations were conducted.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his officials and deputy ministers to hold peace negotiations with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday.

Putin rejected Kyiv's challenge to come directly there to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin previously proposed direct negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, while Zelenskyy said he would wait for the Kremlin leader.

But after making the world wonder for days about Putin's plans, the Kremlin on Wednesday night appointed delegates who did not include the president.

It is not clear how Ukraine will respond to this condition. Negotiations if they occur in Istanbul are deemed not to produce a main agreement, because the main characters who are awaited do not come.

Reported by Reuters on Thursday, May 15, there was confusion in the Turkish city, where journalists gathered near the Dolmabahce palace office that Russia had designated as a place of conversation. Turkish officials did not provide information about the time or location.

Russian news agency TASS said talks would begin at 07.00 GMT, but a Ukrainian official denied this, saying there had been no agreement on when talks would begin.

Zelenskyy, who will meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday, previously said he did not want to talk to anyone on the Russian side except Putin.

The Kremlin said Putin - which is also threatened with stricter European sanctions to "strangled" Russia's economy - did not respond to ultimatums.

The two sides last held face-to-face talks - also in Istanbul - in March 2022, just weeks after Putin sent his troops to Ukraine.

Both are trying to show US President Donald Trump they are serious about peace, as he urged them to end what he called "this stupid war". Washington has repeatedly threatened to stop its diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict unless there is clear progress.