'No peace till I meet Putin' Trump speaks out after Russian tyrant snubbed Ukraine peace talks
Donald Trump has said a peace deal isn’t going to happen until he and Vladimir Putin “get together” after the Russian president shunned direct negotiations with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey.
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“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One before landing in Abu Dhabi.
Mr Trump, who is on the last leg of a four-day Middle East tour, said earlier today that he could still fly to Turkey for peace talks despite Putin’s no-show.
“If something happened I would go on Friday if it was appropriate,” he said. “We have people right now negotiating, I just hope Russia and Ukraine are able to do something. It has to stop.”
Earlier Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says Putin is not going to attend peace talks in the country - as Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in the country.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, announced the talks, which are due to take place in Istanbul, have been pushed back until this afternoon “at Turkey’s initiative”.
Delegations from both Ukraine and Russia were due to meet today in a bid to discuss a potential peace treaty, with Putin's refusal to attend leading Zelenskyy to accused him of sending 'stand in props' to the peace talks.
Putin's list of delegates, released at the eleventh hour, does not include high-ranking Kremlin officials - a move that has lead many to speculate on the credibility of claims he hopes for peace in the region.
It comes as one expert suggested that the 73-year-old Russian leader is a "dead man walking" after claims from insiders that he rarely leaves the country.
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Former commander of the UK's Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, told the Mirror: "There are analysts, people who know better than I, who believe Putin is now a dead man walking, a spent force whose war in Ukraine will cause his end."
Recent hours have seen images emerge of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy touching down in Istanbul, after the leader continued to push for a face-to-face meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Speaking from the tarmac in Istanbul, Volodomyr Zelenskyy accused Vladimir Putin of sending 'stand in props' to peace talks in Turkey.
Putin refusing to show up at talks comes as the UK's foreign secretary criticised Russia for sending 'low-level' officials to direct peace talks with Ukraine.
The Russian president has signed an order revealing who will be in the Istanbul delegation for peace negotiations.
Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy minister of defence Alexander Fomin and deputy foreign minister Galuzin Mikhail Yuryevich will be in attendance.
Putin proposed negotiations with Ukraine to be held on Thursday "without any preconditions".
US President Donald Trump will also not go to Istanbul to join the talks, a US official confirmed.
US president Donald Trump said he was not surprised Russian president Vladimir Putin will be a no-show for anticipated peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey this week.
Mr Trump had pressed for Mr Putin and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to meet in Istanbul on Thursday, but he brushed off Mr Putin's decision not to take part in the expected talks.
"I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there," Mr Trump said in an exchange with reporters as he took part in a business roundtable with executives in Doha on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.
Mr Trump earlier this week floated potentially attending himself.
But the US president noted on Thursday that secretary of state Marco Rubio was already in the country for meetings with Nato counterparts.