Putin to skip Ukraine talks, Russian team includes seasoned negotiators

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the composition late on Wednesday of a delegation of experienced negotiators to conduct direct talks with Ukraine to resolve the ongoing war, though the talks will not include the Kremlin leader himself.

Speculation on whether Putin would attend the direct talks has hung over the meeting since he had proposed it himself last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said he would attend the talks if Putin were present.

An order issued by Putin on the Kremlin website said the delegation included two officials who took part in the last set of talks held between the two sides in the first weeks following Russia's 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Those included presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky and Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin.

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Also named as part of the delegation was Igor Kostyukov, director of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the GRU, Russia's Foreign Military Intelligence Agency. Kostyukov was identified in the Kremlin announcement as Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin was also named as part of the delegation.

Negotiators held several rounds of talks in 2022 first in Belarus and then in Turkey, but the negotiations eventually broke down.