U.S. and Russian officials met on Friday, May 16th at an Istanbul hotel on the sidelines of Ukraine talks being led by Turkey, a U.S. official said.
Michael Anton, the director of policy planning at the State Department, began closed-door talks with Vladimir Medinsky, a hawkish Kremlin aide sent to lead the discussions with Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to take part.
Before the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine, and said it is important to seek a peaceful end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky had travelled to Turkey but said he would not attend the talks, after his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin declined his calls for face-to-face negotiations.
Also on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would like to meet Vladimir Putin “as soon as we can set it up.”
