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Russia on Wednesday released a list of officials who will attend peace talks with Ukraine<\/a> in Turkey. But a key person was missing: President Vladimir V. Putin.<\/p>\n The absence on the list of the Russian leader, who ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that began the war, was a strong indication that Mr. Putin would not come face to face this week with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has called him a murderer<\/a>. The Kremlin said Mr. Putin himself had signed off on the delegation.<\/p>\n President Trump, who began pushing for peace talks before he took back the White House, had said he would consider joining the meeting in Turkey.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking about actually flying over there,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters during a White House news conference on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump, who is on a three-nation tour of the Middle East<\/a>, indicated that he, too, would skip the talks and would instead visit the United Arab Emirates as planned. But he said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would attend.<\/p>\n \u201cTomorrow, we\u2019re all booked out, you understand that,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to U.A.E. tomorrow. So we have a very full situation. Now that doesn\u2019t mean I wouldn\u2019t do it to save a lot of lives and come back. But, yeah, I\u2019ve been thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Of Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump added: \u201cI don\u2019t know that he would be there if I\u2019m not there. We\u2019re going to find out. Marco\u2019s going and Marco\u2019s been very effective.\u201d Along with Mr. Rubio, Mr. Trump\u2019s special envoys Steven Witkoff and Keith Kellogg were expected to travel to Turkey.<\/p>\n In a social media post<\/a> on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky said he was \u201cwaiting to see who will come from Russia\u201d before deciding what steps Ukraine should take regarding the peace talks. He also urged the \u201cstrongest\u201d Western sanctions against Russia if Mr. Putin rejected the meeting.<\/p>\n The Kremlin said that the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hard-line aide to Mr. Putin. It would also include Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, who was part of the Russian delegation in talks held between Moscow and Kyiv in the weeks after the 2022 invasion; and other senior military and intelligence officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The stakes could not be higher for both sides in the largest land war in Europe since World War II.<\/p>\n After more than three years of war, Mr. Putin\u2019s stance is that Russia is winning on the battlefield. But analysts estimate Moscow has lost hundreds of thousands of troops to death and injury. Its soldiers and brigades have been so depleted<\/a> that it turned to North Korea<\/a> for troops, and Moscow has struggled to replace destroyed equipment<\/a>, analysts say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ukrainian forces, which made an audacious invasion into Russia\u2019s Kursk region in August 2024, have since pulled out almost entirely. They have also been steadily losing ground in their country\u2019s east. As Mr. Trump has pushed for peace talks, Kyiv has stressed that it needs security guarantees from the United States. Ukraine even signed a deal<\/a> last month that gives America a share of future revenues from its reserves of rare earth minerals. But the final deal did not include explicit guarantees of future U.S. security assistance.<\/p>\n As the pressure for peace has grown, the White House said in March that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to cease fighting in the Black Sea<\/a> and to work on details for halting strikes on energy facilities. Later that month, after meetings were held in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine said it would support a Trump administration proposal for a 30-day cease-fire<\/a>. That gave new momentum to truce negotiations, which had faltered after a public confrontation at the White House<\/a> between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n Then, in April, Mr. Putin declared an \u201cEaster truce<\/a>,\u201d ordering his forces to \u201cstop all military activity\u201d against Ukraine for the holiday. It was apparently aimed at showing an impatient Trump administration that Moscow was still open to peace talks. Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would abide by a truce so long as Russia did, but Kyiv said Moscow broke its own truce.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After Mr. Trump expressed frustration with Russia\u2019s refusal to stop the war, Mr. Putin ordered a three-day cease-fire<\/a> to begin on May 8, in order to mark the May 9<\/a> celebration of the Soviet Union\u2019s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. Mr. Zelensky described that pledge as a \u201cmanipulation<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Britain and France promised to muster a \u201ccoalition of the willing<\/a>\u201d to secure a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Then a coalition of European allies gave Russia a deadline<\/a> this month to agree to a 30-day cease-fire or face new sanctions. <\/p>\n In his social media post on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said he was \u201cready for any format of negotiations\u201d with Russia in Turkey.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia is only prolonging the war and the killings,\u201d Mr. Zelensky added. \u201cI want to thank every country, every leader who is now putting pressure on Russia, so that the shelling finally stops.\u201d<\/p>\n Cicely Wedgeworth and Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n