Putin, Ukraine and Trump
Digest more
Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to come to Turkey for the talks as President Trump turned up pressure for negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday for a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan, while in Istanbul Russian and Ukranian officials were separately expected to begin peace talks.
Last weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the war in Ukraine. First, European leaders assembled in Kyiv on Saturday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire.
For days, President Donald Trump repeatedly floated the possibility of scrapping his Middle East travel schedule — one his team meticulously crafted for weeks — and adding a stop to personally mediate Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey.