re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Volodymyr Zelenskyy /
@ZelenskyyUa

I want to sincerely thank President
@RTErdogan
, his team, and the people of Türkiye for their support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. President Erdogan reaffirmed during our meeting today that he supports Ukraine and recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine.

This is a very important signal — not only politically, but also personally, in terms of our friendship and Türkiye’s multifaceted support for Ukraine. We had a very meaningful conversation at the highest level.

Ukraine’s visit to Türkiye begins here, in the capital, Ankara. We demonstrated the strength and seriousness of our delegation, which includes: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Head of the Office of the President, the Minister of Defence, the Chief of the General Staff, the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and representatives of all our intelligence agencies.

I want to emphasise that Türkiye has welcomed us with a delegation of equal standing — at the highest level. Unfortunately, after learning the composition of the Russian delegation, it became clear that they are not approaching real talks seriously.

So far, we do not see any real decision-makers among those who arrived. Let me remind everyone: it was Russia that proposed holding direct negotiations. President Trump also supported the idea that leaders should meet.

Nevertheless, despite the extremely low level of the Russian delegation, out of respect — for President Trump, for the high-level delegations present in Türkiye, and for President Erdogan, and out of a sincere desire to take at least the first steps toward de-escalation and ending the war, beginning with a ceasefire — I have decided to send a Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul.

Not all members of our delegation will go: the Head of the Security Service and the Chief of the General Staff will not attend. However, the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul will be led by the Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov. He will be joined by military professionals and intelligence officers.

I made this decision despite the fact that, frankly, there is no counterpart for our Minister of Defence on the Russian side. Still, there are three reasons for this decision: his official role as Minister of Defense, he is a member of our core negotiation team, and fluent in Turkish, English, Russian, and Ukrainian, which is important for effective communication in this format that includes Türkiye, the United States, Ukraine, and Russia.

As for the agenda, the mandate for our delegation is clear: ceasefire is priority number one. I remain convinced that Russia is not serious about these meetings and does not genuinely want to end the war. But we’ll see if they are willing to show at least something during the discussions.