Russia and Ukraine exchanged insults as negotiators were due to meet in Turkey for the first direct peace talks in more than three years, AFP reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Russia for sending a "puppet" delegation as he landed in Ankara for a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. For their part, Russian officials called Zelensky "pathetic" and a "clown."

The exchange of personal attacks undermines the chances of a breakthrough in the negotiations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend, despite days of international pressure.

Instead, the Russian negotiating team that landed in Istanbul is headed by a hardline historian and Kremlin adviser who denies Ukraine's right to exist.

"We need to understand the level of the Russian delegation and what its mandate is, whether it is capable of making decisions on its own," Zelensky said from the tarmac at Ankara airport.

"From what we see, it looks more like a puppet," he added.

US President Donald Trump said he was keeping open the possibility of traveling to Turkey if there was significant progress.

But the absence of Putin, as well as senior diplomats such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, seems to diminish the significance of the talks and any possibility of a breakthrough.

Russia announced that the talks would take place "in the second half of the day," while Zelensky said he would decide how to proceed only after his meeting with Erdogan.

Hundreds of journalists gathered outside the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, where the talks are rumored to be taking place.

Tens of thousands of people have died since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Russia now occupies about a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded almost immediately to Zelensky's criticism of the Moscow delegation.

At a briefing in Moscow, she called him a "puppet," a "clown," and a "loser."

Lavrov called Zelensky "pathetic" for trying to persuade Putin to appear in person.

"First, Zelensky made some statements asking Putin to come in person. Well, what a pathetic man," he said in a televised address to diplomats in Moscow.

Trump, who is pushing for a quick end to the three-year war, said he could go to Turkey if he saw significant progress.

"You know, if something happens, I'll go on Friday (May 16)," Trump said in Qatar.

Speaking at a NATO meeting in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was "eager" and ready to consider "any mechanism" to achieve a lasting end to the war.

He is expected to arrive in Istanbul "for meetings with European colleagues to discuss the conflict in Ukraine," according to the US State Department.

Putin himself made a surprise call for direct talks after Kiev and European leaders pressed him to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Despite the flurry of diplomatic activity, the positions of Moscow and Kiev remain far apart.

The Kremlin's appointment of Vladimir Medinsky, a close aide to Putin, though not a key figure in the decision-making process, as chief negotiator suggests that Moscow is not planning to make concessions.

Medinsky led the unsuccessful negotiations in 2022, during which Moscow made sweeping claims to Ukrainian territory and demanded restrictions on Kiev's military forces.

He is known for writing ultra-nationalist textbooks that question Ukraine's right to exist and justify the invasion.

Russia also sent a deputy foreign minister, a deputy defense minister, and the head of military intelligence, the GRU.

Zelensky said that Kyiv had sent a delegation at the highest level.

"Our delegation is at the highest level — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the President's Office, the military, our intelligence services... to take decisions that can lead to a just peace," he said in Ankara.

Russia insists that the talks focus on what it calls the "root causes" of the conflict, including the "denazification" and demilitarization of Ukraine.

These vague terms, which Moscow uses to justify its invasion, are widely rejected in Kyiv and in the West.

It also reiterated that Ukraine must cede territories occupied by Russian troops and withdraw from some areas still under Ukrainian control.

Kyiv wants an immediate 30-day ceasefire and insists it will not recognize the territories as Russian.

Zelensky acknowledged, however, that Ukraine could only regain them through diplomatic means. | BGNES