Russian officials are scheduled to engage in direct talks with Ukraine in Turkey this week, although Moscow has not yet revealed who will represent it in the discussions, the Kremlin announced on Tuesday, just two days before the meeting.

“Russia is continuing its preparations for the negotiations on Thursday. That is all we can disclose at this moment,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists during a daily press conference.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to personally meet with him in Istanbul during the negotiations, but the Kremlin has not confirmed whether Putin is open to such a personal encounter with Zelensky.

Putin suggested the negotiations as a response to a Western-supported proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. While he did not directly address the ceasefire proposal, he stated that he could not “rule out” the possibility that the talks in Istanbul may lead to such an agreement.

On Tuesday, Peskov mentioned that the announcement of the Russian delegation would be made “once the president considers it appropriate.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, on his visit to the Middle East this week, indicated on Monday that he would participate in the Istanbul talks “if he believed it would be beneficial.”

Putin and Zelensky have not met since December 2019, which was more than two years prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The last direct negotiations between the two parties took place in Istanbul in March 2022, resulting in a draft peace proposal that would have required Kyiv to adopt a neutral stance and forego NATO membership. That agreement ultimately did not materialize.