The Russian Foreign Ministry has rejected criticism that Moscow only sent a second-tier delegation to the peace negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul.
The most qualified experts have been dispatched to Turkey, ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, according to the state-run news agency TASS.
These experts, she said, are prepared and competent to discuss all topics. “International law, certainly. The situation on the ground, certainly. Questions of combat operations, certainly,” she explained.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the delegation as second-rate and has demanded the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at talks.
It remains unclear whether and when the first direct talks between Ukrainians and Russians in three years will take place. The Russian delegation is at the hotel, waiting for developments, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, citing an unnamed source.
TASS, also citing an anonymous source, reported that negotiations would not begin until Friday.
The Russian delegation’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, is considered by the West as a political lightweight and was also involved in the fruitless negotiations in 2022 shortly after the war began.
Putin has not travelled to Istanbul and Zelensky is now not going either.
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