British foreign secretary David Lammy has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of sending a “low-level” delegation to peace talks on Ukraine on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Turkey, where he said he was prepared to meet the Russian leader, but the Kremlin is instead sending Putin’s aide, Vladimir Medinsky.

This is alongside the deputy defence and foreign ministers.

Lammy and NATO counterparts, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are taking part in a separate meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya.

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. 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 President Donald Trump was “open to virtually any mechanism that gets us to a just, enduring and lasting peace and that’s what he wants to see.”

“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 Erdoğan.

He said he would travel to Istanbul, where peace talks are taking place, if Mr Putin showed up.

(dpa/NAN)