Turkey said a tripartite meeting between Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials will take place at 12:30 pm local time (0930 GMT) at the Turkish presidency's Dolmabahce Palace.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who landed in Istanbul Friday morning, had earlier downplayed expectations for the peace talks, after Moscow sent a low-profile delegation and both sides traded insults ahead of the negotiations, initially slated for Thursday.
US President Donald Trump had also appeared to concede that progress in Turkey was unlikely, saying there would be no movement towards ending the three-year war until he met Putin.
Zelensky also said he did not expect a breakthrough, accusing Moscow of being “not serious” about ending the war.
The Russian side is being led by Vladimir Medinsky, a hawkish adviser to Putin who has questioned Ukraine's right to exist and led failed talks in 2022 at the start of the war.
Setting the tone
Kyiv also said another woman in her 50s was killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while Moscow said it downed 65 Ukrainian drones overnight.
“Obviously he wasn’t going to go,“ he told reporters.
Setting the tone ahead of the meeting, Zelensky on Thursday said Russia had sent a “dummy” delegation, while Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the Ukrainian president a “clown” and “loser”.
“The delegation is committed to a constructive approach, to finding possible solutions and points of contact. The goal of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is to eventually establish long-term peace by eliminating the root causes of the conflict,“ he said.
After a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Zelensky said that Russia was “not taking the real negotiations very seriously” but that he was sending a high-level delegation “out of respect” for Erdogan and Trump.
Rubio said he would meet in Istanbul with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga and that a lower-level US official would meet the Russians.
The EPC, which brings together the members of the European Union and 20 other countries, was established in 2022 on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv and its European allies had called for Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire before any negotiations, but Moscow rejected the proposal.
Kyiv and the West reject those calls but Zelensky has conceded that Ukraine might only get back some territory through diplomatic means.
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