Ukraine mulls next step after Putin's no-show for talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a second-tier team of aides and deputy ministers to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey, spurning Kyiv's challenge to go there in person to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Putin's no-show plunged prospects for the talks - which would be the first since the early weeks of the war - into confusion.

Russia said they would take place in Istanbul in the second half of the day, but Turkey said no meeting was scheduled yet.

Zelenskiy, arriving in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday, described the Russian line-up - excluding Putin, his foreign minister and his top foreign policy adviser - as "decorative".

He said Ukraine would decide its next move on talks with Russia after he had met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and understood "what kind of level the Russian delegation is".

Asked what his message to Putin would be, Zelenskiy told reporters at the airport: "I'm here. I think this is a clear message."

Russia said its team was in Istanbul and ready for serious work, and accused Ukraine of "trying to put on a show" around the negotiations.

Both sides have been wrestling for months over the logistics of ceasefires and peace talks while trying to show US President Donald Trump they are serious about trying to end what he calls "this stupid war".

Hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded on both sides in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Washington has threatened repeatedly to abandon its mediation efforts unless there is clear progress.

There was confusion in Istanbul, where reporters were gathered near the Dolmabahce palace that the Russians had specified as the talks venue.

Zelenskiy had goaded Putin earlier this week by questioning if he was brave enough to show up.

The Kremlin says Putin - who is also under threat of even tighter European sanctions to "suffocate" Russia's economy - does not respond to ultimatums.

The warring sides last held face-to-face talks - also in Istanbul - in March 2022, only weeks after Putin sent his army into Ukraine.

After leaning heavily on Ukraine and clashing with Zelenskiy at an Oval Office meeting in February, Trump has shown increasing impatience with Putin in recent weeks and threatened additional sanctions on Russia.

The US president, who is on a three-nation tour of the Middle East, said he would go to the talks in Turkey on Friday if it was "appropriate".

"I just hope Russia and Ukraine are able to do something. It has to stop," he said.

If the talks go ahead, they will have to address a chasm between the two sides over a host of issues.

Zelenskiy backs an immediate 30-day ceasefire, but Putin says he first wants to start talks at which the details of such a truce could be discussed.

With Russian forces in control of close to a fifth of Ukraine, Putin has held fast to his demands for Kyiv to cede territory, abandon its NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral country.

Ukraine rejects these terms as tantamount to capitulation, and is seeking guarantees of its future security from world powers, especially the United States.

The Russian delegation is headed by presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky and includes a deputy defence minister, a deputy foreign minister and the head of military intelligence.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Zelenskiy had shown his good faith by going to Turkey but there was an "empty chair" where Putin should be sitting.

Estonia, an EU and NATO member, said Putin was delivering a "slap in the face" by sending a low-level team.