39m ago
07.45
CEST
Welcome
and summary
Hello and
welcome to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine
and Russia are set to go into their first direct talks in more than three years
in Istanbul, but President Vladimir Putin is not included on the list of
attendees.
Ukraine’s
president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had challenged Putin to meet him in person in
Istanbul, but the Kremlin has said he will not be taking him up on the offer.
Putin had
proposed holding the talks in Istanbul as a counter-offer after Ukraine and
European nations last week called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
Zelenskyy agreed, but said this week that if Putin did not attend himself, it
would signal he was not genuinely interested in peace.
Meanwhile
Nato ministers including UK foreign secretary David Lammy will meet in Turkey
on Thursday. Britain and its military allies will be working to “step up” their
collective security at the gathering in Antalya, Lammy said.
Today,
President Zelenskyy is in Turkey in a further demonstration of his commitment
to peace, ready to enter talks direct with Russia and continuing to push for a
full ceasefire as a first crucial step.
Here’s a
summary of the day’s other main events:
Ukraine’s
president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is due in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on
Thursday where he will meet with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Putin
announced on Wednesday that he would send Vladimir Medinsky, a presidential
adviser, to lead the Russian delegation. Also included in the delegation are
Alexander Fomin, a deputy defence minister; Igor Kostyukov, an intelligence
director; and Mikhail Galuzin, a deputy foreign minister. Significantly,
Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Kremlin foreign policy aide
Yuri Ushakov, both top negotiators for the Kremlin, were not named in the
Russian delegation.
The US
secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is expected in Istanbul on Friday to take part
in what are the first direct peace talks since failed efforts in the first
weeks of the Russian full-scale invasion. Rubio met with Ukraine’s foreign
minister, Andriy Sybiga, on Wednesday in Antalya.
Germany’s
new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Wednesday that there must not be any
settlement in Ukraine in the form of a “dictated peace” from Moscow. Addressing
parliament, Merz warned of “militarily created facts against Ukraine’s will”,
telling lawmakers it was “of paramount importance that the political west does
not allow itself to be divided”.
A Russian
missile attack on Wednesday killed three people at an industrial site near the
north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, said the regional governor, Oleh
Hryhorov. Sumy sits opposite Russia’s Kursk region – a Russian missile attack
on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday killed 35 people.
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