The US president indicated his schedule could change on Friday “if something happened.”
US President Donald Trump is considering a trip to Türkiye this Friday, as Ukraine and Russia are preparing to restart direct peace talks for the first time since 2022.
The US president, aiming to help broker a ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, stated he might adjust his travel plans during his current Middle East tour. “If something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate,” he told reporters in Qatar on Thursday morning.
Trump restated his desire to resolve the Ukraine conflict and voiced his hope “that Russia and Ukraine are able to do something, because it has to stop.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested last week that negotiations, which Kiev stopped in April 2022 to pursue a military victory, should resume. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded by announcing he will personally travel to Türkiye and expects Putin to do the same to demonstrate his commitment.
Moscow revealed the members of its delegation late on Wednesday. It is headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who also led the Russian delegation during previous negotiations with Kiev.
When asked if he was disappointed by the delegation’s composition, Trump said he didn’t anticipate Putin to travel to Türkiye since he hadn’t made any similar public commitments himself.
“I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go. And that’s turned out to be right,” he explained, adding that he has confidence in members of his administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who would travel to Istanbul on Friday with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The Russian delegation to Istanbul also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin, and Deputy Head of the Russian General Staff Igor Kostyukov, who leads Russia’s military intelligence.
In 2022, Medinsky’s team negotiated a potential peace agreement. Under its terms, Kiev would receive Russian security guarantees in return for neutrality and limitations on the size of its army. David Arakhamia, who headed the Ukrainian delegation, later revealed that, after the draft treaty had been pre-approved, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged Kiev to “just fight,” leading to the continuation of the war.
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