Officials From Russia and Ukraine Are in Turkey, But Will Peace Talks Take Place?

An anticipated round of Ukraine peace talks in Turkey descended into bluster and confusion on Thursday, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived in different cities and spent much of the day questioning whether they would even meet with one another.

By evening, both sides indicated that the talks in some form were still on, but that they could be postponed until Friday. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, visiting the Turkish capital of Ankara, slammed the Kremlin for its “disrespect” in sending a midlevel delegation to Istanbul, where Russia wanted the talks to take place.

“There is no time of the meeting, there is no agenda of the meeting, there is no high-level delegation,” Mr. Zelensky said at a news conference after sitting down with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. “I think Russia’s attitude is unserious.”

After a day of uncertainty over whether Ukraine would participate in the talks in Istanbul, Mr. Zelensky said he would send a pared-down delegation there, led by the minister of defense, Rustem Umerov. He said he made the decision to show that Ukraine would engage in any effort for peace, even one with the slimmest chance of success, after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia rebuffed his appeal to meet in person in Turkey.

Overshadowing it all was President Trump, who told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that “nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.” Mr. Trump, who was in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, had earlier said that he might travel to Turkey on Friday “if something happened” in the peace talks. However, there was no other indication that a last-minute summit would materialize.