内容摘要：Ukrainian parliamentarians vote for ratification of the Minerals Agreement between Ukraine and United States at Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Ukrainian parliamentarians vote for ratification of the Minerals Agreement between Ukraine and United States at Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadym Sarakhan)

Russia has said that it will send a delegation to Istanbul without preconditions.Zelenskyy won’t be meeting with any Russian officials in Istanbul other than Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said Tuesday on a YouTube show run by prominent Russian journalists in exile.

Lower-level talks would amount to simply “dragging out” any peace process, Podolyak said.European leaders have recently accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts, while he attempts to press his bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.Russia effectively rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, starting Monday, that was demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders, when it fired more than 100 drones at Ukraine. Putin instead offered direct peace talks.

But the wrangling over whether a ceasefire should come before the talks begin has continued.“Ukraine is ready for any format of negotiations with Russia, but a ceasefire must come first,” Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said Tuesday.

Negotiations are impossible while “the Ukrainian people are under attack by Russian missiles and drones around the clock,” Yermak said in a video address to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2025.

Putin has repeatedlyIn another post on Sunday, the U.S. president said Ukraine should accept Putin’s offer “to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH.” He added, however, that he was “starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin.”

Putin spoke Sunday to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who expressed readiness to host the talks, the Kremlin said.According to the Kremlin’s readout of the phone call, Erdogan “fully supported the Russian proposal” and was ready to provide a platform for the talks and assistance in organizing them.

In a separate phone call to Macron on Sunday, Erdogan said that a “historic turning point” had been reached in efforts to end the war, according to a statement from the Turkish presidential communications office.Zelenskyy in his nightly video address on Sunday said he still expected a ceasefire to take hold on Monday, and that he was still waiting for a “clear answer” from Russia about it.