David Lammy slammed Vladimir Putin for sending a “low-level” delegation to peace talks with Ukraine instead of facing Volodymyr Zelensky himself.
The Ukrainian president is in Turkey where he has said he is prepared to meet the Russian leader, but instead the Kremlin is sending Mr Putin’s aide Vladimir Medinsky and deputy defence and foreign ministers.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Nato counterparts including the US’s top diplomat Marco Rubio are taking part in a separate meeting in Turkey.
Mr Lammy said: “We come with one single message to stand by Ukraine and to ensure that we get a just and lasting, enduring peace.
“And the readiness for that peace is demonstrated by President Zelensky being here in Turkey as well.
“And of course, we watched closely as we head to these talks, noting the Russian low-level individuals who are coming to represent the Russian side.”
At the Nato meeting Mr Rubio said US President Donald Trump is “open to virtually any mechanism that gets us to a just, enduring and lasting peace and that’s what he wants to see”.
Mr Rubio said: “He wants to end wars and that’s the hope with Russia and Ukraine. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days in that regard, but we want to see progress made.”
While the Nato foreign ministers gathered in Antalya, Mr Zelensky was visiting Ankara for talks with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but has said he would travel to Istanbul where peace talks are taking place if Mr Putin showed up.
