Zelenskyy says he is sending delegation to Istanbul for peace talks with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File picture: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is sending a team headed by his defence minister to Istanbul for the first direct peace talks with a Russian delegation since the early weeks of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Mr Zelenskyy made the move after Russian president Vladimir Putin stayed away from a face-to-face meeting with him in Turkey that the Ukrainian leader had proposed in a flurry of diplomatic manoeuvres last weekend.