U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up an hour-long meeting with Turkish and Ukrainian officials on Friday, hours before the first Russia-Ukraine face-to-face talks in almost three years, a U.S. official confirmed.
Rubio, who had earlier warned against having high hopes for substantial breakthroughs from the negotiations, said, “we don’t have high expectations,” but flew to Istanbul to show U.S. backing for the diplomatic process.
Upon arrival in Turkey’s capital city, Rubio went straight to Dolmabahce Palace to talk to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga. Also present were Washington’s envoy to Turkey, Tom Barrack, U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, presidential chief of staff of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said a Turkish foreign ministry source.
Images of the meeting showed other participants, such as Turkish intelligence head Ibrahim Kalin and former ambassador to Moscow Mehmet Samsar. But Rubio was not thought to be involved in the official peace talks.
The Russia-Ukraine negotiations would start at 0930 GMT, early reports from Turkey’s foreign ministry indicated, but other officials said the precise timetable was unclear.
As a parallel initiative, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce commented that Michael Anton, the State Department’s chief policy planning officer, would meet the Russian side prior to the peace talks at Dolmabahce Palace.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made up his mind to send a smaller delegation for the talks following Russia sending a relatively low-level delegation. While Sybiga and Yermak did participate in the initial meeting with Rubio, they do not belong to Ukraine’s official delegation for the talks. The Ukrainian team will rather be headed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
On the Russian side, Vladimir Medinsky leads the delegation as a hardline adviser to President Vladimir Putin. Medinsky, who has been controversial by suggesting that Ukraine is not a sovereign state, also spearheaded earlier failed negotiation efforts at the beginning of the war.
