Ukraine and Russia are on account of maintain their first direct peace talks in additional than three years in Istanbul on Thursday and Friday, although the precise timing and format stay unclear.
Moscow has notably withheld its high diplomatic heavyweights – together with Vladimir Putin’s chief international coverage aide, Yuri Ushakov, and his international minister, Sergei Lavrov – as an alternative dispatching a peculiar mixture of officers, amongst them an ultranationalist former tradition minister and a infamous spymaster.
Ukraine’s delegation, which is comprised of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s most trusted aides, arrived in Ankara on Thursday and is predicted to journey to Istanbul. Zelenskyy isn’t anticipated to attend, and neither is Putin.
Staff Russia
Vladimir Medinsky
Main Russia’s delegation is Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian ultra-conservative former tradition minister and who’s an aide to Putin.
A staunch nationalist, he’s recognized for selling a closely revised, state-centric model of Russian historical past and values. His Myths About Russia ebook collection makes an attempt to debunk perceived anti-Russian narratives however has been extensively criticised for historic distortion.
Medinsky as soon as prompted ridicule by claiming that Russians “have an additional chromosome”, a weird and pseudoscientific assertion meant to counsel innate Russian resilience and uniqueness.
He led the Russian delegation on the spring 2022 Istanbul peace talks with Ukraine and now performs a key function in shaping Kremlin messaging on the battle. He has additionally overseen new historical past textbooks portraying Ukraine as an ultranationalist state and casting the invasion as a justified response to western aggression.
Igor Kostyukov
One other notable member of Russia’s delegation in Turkey is Igor Kostyukov, the top of the GRU, Russia’s navy intelligence company, which has been behind a few of Moscow’s most infamous covert operations lately.
Kostyukov is underneath sanction within the US for his alleged function in interfering within the 2016 presidential election, and the UK over the 2018 poisoning of the previous Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, which killed Daybreak Sturgess.
Most lately, the GRU has been accused of orchestrating a collection of sabotage operations throughout Europe, together with arson assaults, cyber-intrusions, information theft, and makes an attempt to focus on undersea cables.
Alexander Vasilyevich Fomin
Col Gen Alexander Vasilyevich Fomin is a seasoned Russian navy officer and diplomat. Like Medinsky, Fomin was a part of the Russian delegation within the 2022 peace talks with Ukraine held in Istanbul.
Fomin isn’t a family title in Russia. A veteran of Russia’s defence institution, he has quietly constructed a profession as one of many Kremlin’s high navy diplomats. Fomin’s title has additionally come up in reference to Russia’s deeper navy ties to non-western allies – from arms gross sales to Myanmar and Egypt to more and more heat ties with North Korea and Iran.
Mikhail Galuzin
Mikhail Galuzin isn’t generally known as a typical Kremlin hardliner. Bookish, fluent in Japanese, and keen on quoting classical literature, he’s lengthy been one of many extra polished faces of Russian diplomacy. He reduce his enamel within the Soviet embassy in Tokyo and has remained Moscow’s go-to man on all issues east Asia, serving as ambassador to Indonesia and later Japan.
Nevertheless, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine introduced him again to Moscow. Appointed the deputy international minister in late 2022, Galuzin now oversees relations with Russia’s post-Soviet neighbours together with Ukraine, which Moscow claims is a part of its “sphere of affect”.
Staff Ukraine
Rustem Umerov
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister since September 2023, is an ethnic Crimean Tatar and a former funding banker with shut ties to Turkey. A fluent Turkish speaker and practising Muslim, he has performed a key function in Kyiv’s efforts to rally worldwide help for the return of Crimea. Umerov co-chaired the Crimea Platform diplomatic summit and took half in Ukraine’s preliminary negotiations with Russia in 2022. His appointment was seen as a sign of reform within the defence ministry, which had been suffering from corruption
Andriy Yermak
Andriy Yermak is Ukraine’s presidential chief of workers and extensively considered the nation’s second strongest determine after the nation’s president. A former leisure lawyer and movie producer, Yermak turned an in depth confidant of Zelenskyy throughout his media profession and joined his political workforce in 2019.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Yermak has emerged as a central determine in Ukraine’s wartime management. He oversees international coverage, intelligence coordination, and high-level diplomacy, together with prisoner exchanges and peace negotiations. His affect is so in depth that he has been dubbed Ukraine’s “Inexperienced Cardinal” and “de facto vice-president”. Yermak’s prominence has drawn reward and controversy, with critics accusing him of centralising energy.
Vasyl Malyuk
A shock inclusion within the delegation, Vasyl Malyuk is Ukraine’s spymaster-in-chief, serving as head of the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) since February 2023. A profession intelligence officer who hardly ever travels overseas in public, Malyuk has been important in reshaping the SBU right into a extra agile and deadly power amid Russia’s full-scale invasion. Malyuk is believed to have overseen high-profile operations, such because the arrest of the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk and the event of maritime drones utilized in assaults on the Russian navy.
Andriy Sybiha
Andriy Sybiha is Ukraine’s international minister, appointed in September 2024 after a protracted profession in diplomacy and presidential technique. A seasoned operator fluent in English and Polish, he’s extensively seen as a trusted Zelenskyy loyalist, having served for years because the deputy head of the president’s workplace, the place he oversaw international coverage and helped coordinate worldwide partnerships in the course of the battle.
Andriy Hnatov
Andriy Hnatov is Ukraine’s newly appointed chief of the overall workers, promoted in March 2025 as a part of Zelenskyy’s navy reforms. A veteran marine officer with greater than twenty years of service, Hnatov is understood for his frontline management and loyalty underneath strain.
In 2014, throughout Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Hnatov was among the many few Ukrainian marines who refused to defect, main a bunch of 200 troops out of the peninsula to rebuild the marine corps from scratch. He later commanded the thirty sixth Separate Marine Brigade and performed key roles within the defence of Mykolaiv and Bakhmut.
