Rubio lands in Istanbul; delegation's mood reportedly "lacklustre"

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has landed in Istanbul, where multilateral talks on resolving the Russo-Ukrainian war are to take place, on the morning of 16 May.

BBC journalist Tom Bateman, who arrived with Rubio, noted that the mood of the American delegation was "pretty lacklustre".

"US officials would have liked to have been telling the boss that they’d got the meeting he wanted – a Trump-Putin summit. But it’s not happening. Instead Rubio’s heading to another meeting with senior Turkish and Ukrainian officials."

Earlier, the Turkish state-owned news agency Anadolu published a schedule of planned meetings in Istanbul between delegations from Ukraine, the US, Türkiye and Russia.

Russia has sent a low-level delegation led by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky to the talks in Türkiye, which were initiated by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

Defence Minister Rustem Umierov is heading the Ukrainian delegation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed 12 people to the delegation in total.