The Kremlin left President Vladimir Putin off its list for talks in Turkey on Thursday with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, instead naming a lower level team for the first direct Russia-Ukraine contacts on their conflict in more than three years.
Zelensky had challenged Putin to meet him in person at the talks, with US President Donald Trump also appearing to urge the Kremlin leader to come to the negotiating table.
The Istanbul negotiations would be the first direct peace talks since discussions in the first weeks of the conflict broke down without a deal.
After days of declining to say if Putin would go, the Kremlin named its negotiating team late on Wednesday.
The Russian side will be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a hardline aide to Putin and ex-culture minister who was involved in 2022 negotiations.
Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov -- who had all been rumoured as top negotiators after leading previous talks with the United States -- were not named in the delegation.
Zelensky said this week that Putin's absence would be a clear signal that he was not genuinely interested in peace.
"I am waiting to see who will arrive from Russia. Then I will decide what steps Ukraine should take," Zelensky said Wednesday.
