A defensive Trump snapped at a reporter on Air Force One and insisted he was not “disappointed” at Vladimir Putin snubbing peace talks in Turkey, declaring that “nothing is going to happen” until the two tough guy leaders get together.
The Russian strongman played Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by teasing until the very last minute that he might join the summit in Istanbul. But Zelensky and Trump’s U.S. delegation were left high and dry when the Kremlin leader failed to show.
Instead, he sent a crack squad of low-level cronies the jilted Ukrainian leader dubbed “phony.” Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide and former culture minister, headed the uninspiring Russian delegation. Medinsky brings “nothing” to the table, one anonymous Ukrainian official told The Washington Post. Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russian military intelligence, was also there. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was not.
Speaking on Air Force One just hours after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov curtly confirmed Putin would not attend, Trump turned prickly when talk turned to the Russian leader.
The president had just left Qatar and was headed for the United Arab Emirates when he fielded questions on the presidential aircraft.
He became tetchy when a BBC journalist asked if he was “disappointed” about the level of the delegation the Russians sent to Turkey.
“I’m not disappointed in anything, I don’t know a thing about it,” he said sternly. “Where are you from, who are you from?” he asked, with the reporter responding that he represented the British broadcaster.
“I’m not disappointed. Why would I be? We just took in $4 trillion and he says, ‘Are you disappointed about a delegation?’ I know nothing about a delegation, I haven’t even checked,” he said.
He then quickened his speech and launched into a rambling, contradictory diatribe about Putin’s “will he or won’t he” attendance: “Look. Nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together, OK? And obviously—he wasn’t going to go.
“He was going to go, but he thought I was going. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there and I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying,” he concluded.
Speaking from Qatar earlier on Thursday, Trump left the door open for the talks to be nudged forward to Friday. He said he could attend, in an apparent attempt to coax Putin to do the same.
“If something happened, I’d go on Friday if it was appropriate,” he said before jetting off to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.
Putin swore he was ready for serious negotiations, floating the idea of talks on Sunday. Ukraine quickly agreed and invited the Kremlin leader to attend. Trump waited for him to commit.
The U.S. president, who promised to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict on day one of his presidency, has long urged the leaders of the two nations to meet face to face for the first time since December 2019.
Ukraine has always insisted that Putin’s attendance is mandatory.
The Russian president, though, sent an “FU” to all parties by doing something he could do any day instead of attending. The bored-looking leader was photographed on Thursday meeting with the CEO of state-owned Promsvyazbank, Pyotr Fradkov, in Moscow.
In an attempt to save face earlier on Thursday, Trump claimed he knew Putin was never going to attend. “I didn’t anticipate… I actually said, ‘why would he go if I’m not going?’ Because I wasn’t going to go,” he said.
“I wasn’t planning to go. I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go. And that’s turned out to be right.”
His rambling answer continued: “But we have people there, Marco’s [Rubio] there, Marco’s doing a fantastic job… but I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are expected to negotiate in Istanbul. The Ukrainian president and his team are in the capital, Ankara, after meeting with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump told reporters en route to Qatar on Wednesday: “[Putin] would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility… I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out.”
A potential 30-day ceasefire and possible prisoner-of-war exchange are on the table, but it is unclear if Zelensky will negotiate without Putin present.
“Everything will depend on whether Putin is scared of coming to Istanbul or not. Based on his response, the Ukrainian leadership will decide on the next steps,” a Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Wednesday.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
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