INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Vladimir Putin will not take a trip to Istanbul to attendThursdays direct talks with Ukraine, according to a regulation published
by the Kremlin late Wednesday.Instead, governmental aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led previous rounds of stopped working settlements with
Ukraine in March and April of 2022, was called head of the Russian delegation.Medinsky will be signed up with by Deputy Foreign Minister
Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russias military intelligence agency (GRU)
The Kremlin regulation also names a group of specialist advisors, consisting of senior officials from the Foreign and Defense Ministries and
the presidential administration.Moscow had previously hesitated to validate delegates for the settlements in Istanbul, which Putin
unilaterally revealed throughout a surprise conference in the early hours of Sunday as a counteroffer to Western-backed calls for a 30-day
ceasefire in Ukraine.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky challenged the Russian leader to consult with him face to face during the talks,
arguing that his attendance, or lack thereof, would reveal whether Moscow was ready to negotiate in good faith.The Kremlin regulation
released Wednesday did not list Putin amongst the officials expected to participate in the negotiations, and top spokesperson Dmitry Peskov
later on confirmed that the president would not take a trip to Turkey for the talks.Zelensky hassaidthat he would just meet with Putin in
Turkey, declining to take a seat with lower-level Russian officials.Russian officials previously told The Moscow Times that Putin did not
intend on conference with the Ukrainian president at this stage in the talks, stating that the Kremlin leader does not see Zelensky as his
equal and will just consent to meet him in the event of his public capitulation.An unnamed Ukrainian official informed Reuters late
Wednesday that Zelensky was on his way to Ankara, where he earlier stated he prepares to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdoan.After the Kremlin published its official list of delegates for the Istanbul talks, a White House official told Reuters that U.S
President Donald Trump, who is presently traveling in the Middle East, would likewise skip the talks
Trump hadsaidhe would consider participating in the settlements if he thought it would be helpful.Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S
Secretary of State Marco Rubio validated that they will take a trip to Turkey on Friday for Russia-Ukraine talks, however it was not
immediately clear what function they mean to play in the discussions.Thursdays settlements in Istanbul, if they go through, would mark the
first direct meeting in between Russia and Ukraine because early 2022, when peace talks collapsed amid Russiandemandsthat Ukraine abandon
its quote to join NATO and dramatically reduce the size of its military.Ukraine, in its turn, refused torecognizeRussias control over the
eastern Luhansk and Donetsk areas, along with the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014
Kyiv also dismissed demands to pay for the restoration of war-torn locations on Russian terms.Reuters contributed reporting.
