Russia continues to "prepare" for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday but will announce who will represent Moscow only when President Vladimir Putin decides, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will certainly be in Istanbul, having said several times that he would go to Istanbul to meet Putin. And US President Donald Trump has also said that he expects both Zelensky and Putin to be in Turkey.

For Kiev, the Russian president's absence would be the "final signal" that Moscow does not want to end the war.

“I believe that if Vladimir Putin refuses to visit Turkey, it will give the final signal that Russia does not want to end this war, that it is not ready to negotiate,” a statement on the Ukrainian presidency’s website read, quoting Andrei Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s right-hand man.

(Online Union)

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