Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Trump says he is ‘thinking about actually flying over’ to Turkey where Putin and Zelensky are likely to meet this week
I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice
Donald Trump has suggested he could join Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Turkey this week if the two leaders meet for peace talks there.
“I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done,” Mr Trump said in the White House yesterday. Mr Trump’s current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.
It is important that Mr Trump supports the meeting, Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address. Mr Zelensky on Sunday night agreed to Russian president Mr Putin’s offer of direct talks between the two countries and said he “will be waiting for Putin in Turkey on Thursday personally”.
This comes as Moscow hit back at Europe‘s 30-day ceasefire ultimatum as “unacceptable” and “unsuitable” following Western threats of sanctions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was wrong to “use such language with Russia”.
European countries, with the backing of US president Donald Trump, have told Vladimir Putin to agree to the ceasefire by Monday or face more sanctions.
The West must increase its sanctions on Russia as well as its military support to Ukraine after Russia did not agree to an immediate ceasefire on Monday, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said today.
“There needs to be further steps as regards sanctions as well as additional support for Ukraine since (Russian president Vladimir) Putin, as was to be expected, is behaving as usual in such a situation,” Mr Pistorius told reporters in Berlin.
Ukraine and Russia are set to meet in Turkey for peace talks three years after initial talks in the country broke down, with US president Donald Trump suggesting he could fly in to join the negotiations.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has also announced that he will be in Istanbul for the talks, due to start on Thursday, and has called for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to meet him there.
The person who has been most vocal about his attendance is Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. He wrote on social media earlier this week that he supports Mr Trump’s calls for direct talks with Mr Putin.
Tom Watling reports:
France has shut down a wild conspiracy peddled by the Russian foreign ministry that Europe’s leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, were doing cocaine together on a train into Ukraine.
The claims centre on a video in which French president Emmanuel Macron picks up a white tissue from a table and German chancellor Friedrich Merz retrieves a coffee stirrer. Sir Keir is seen smiling on the opposite side of the table.
The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote a lengthy diatribe on social media site Telegram over the weekend in which she claimed the video was evidence that the trio had spent the train journey doing cocaine and had forgotten to remove the drug paraphernalia. She claimed the tissue was a bag of cocaine and the stirrer was a spoon used to consume the drugs.
Donald Trump has suggested he could join Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Turkey this week if the two leaders meet for peace talks there.
“You may have a good result out of the Thursday meeting in Turkey … and I believe the two leaders are going to be there. I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done,” Mr Trump said in the White House yesterday.
Mr Trump’s current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.
The US president added that he insisted that the meeting between the two leaders takes place.
“I think you’re going to have … maybe a good meeting, you have the potential for a good meeting. A meeting wasn’t going take place, and I insisted that that meeting take[s] place…,” Mr Trump said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky will only attend talks on Ukraine if Russia’s Vladimir Putin is also there, the Ukrainian leader’s top aide said today, challenging the Kremlin to show it is genuine about seeking peace.
“President Zelensky will not meet with any other Russian representative in Istanbul, except Putin,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters today.
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Mr Zelensky’s trip to Turkey showed Kyiv was ready for talks but repeated Ukraine’s stance that any negotiations must come after a ceasefire.
“Our position is very principled and very strong,” Mr Yermak said during a visit to Copenhagen.
Moscow has not said if the Russian leader will travel to Turkey and settle the war with Ukraine.
Donald Trump, who is due to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week, has also unexpectedly offered to travel to Istanbul, to mediate the peace talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives.
President Volodymyr Zelensky will only meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks in Turkey on Thursday and not any other member of a Russian delegation, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said this morning.
Mr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet in Istanbul for a summit to end the war, accepting Mr Putin’s offer of direct talks.
The latest statement from Kyiv doubles down on Mr Zelensky’s offer to meet Mr Putin personally to gauge if Russia is indeed serious about ending the war in Ukraine.
Last night, US president Donald Trump offered to join the proposed Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
Russia launched just 10 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine in night-time attacks, the Ukrainian air force said this morning.
That makes it the smallest overnight aerial bombardment this year at a time when the warring countries are preparing for the possibility of peace talks in Turkey.
The Kremlin hasn’t directly responded to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s challenge for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to meet him in person at the negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday.
Mr Zelensky will not be meeting with any Russian officials in Istanbul other than Mr Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, said this morning on a YouTube show run by prominent Russian journalists in exile.
Lower-level talks would amount to simply “dragging out” any peace process, Mr Podolyak said.
European leaders have recently accused Mr Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he attempts to press his bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
Russia effectively rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders from Monday (yesterday), when it fired more than 100 drones at Ukraine.
Mr Putin instead offered direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has backed Donald Trump’s presence at peace talks in Istanbul this week, saying Ukraine has “always supported diplomacy” and that he is “ready to come to Türkiye”.
“President Erdogan has expressed full readiness to host the meeting. It is important that President Trump fully supports the meeting, and we would like him to find an opportunity to come to Türkiye,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
He also called out silence from the Kremlin on direct offers from Kyiv for peace talks.
“Moscow has remained silent all day regarding the proposal for a direct meeting. A very strange silence. One way or another, Russia will have to end this war – and the sooner, the better. There is no sense in continuing the killing,” he said.
Vladimir Putin’s 2am press conference on Sunday was not just theatre, it was his latest salvo in the psychological battle to shape global perceptions of who is truly to blame for Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Russia was ready for peace talks in Turkey this Thursday, Putin said, with no conditions attached. That meant no ceasefire as a prelude to talks.
Volodymyr Zelensky took the wind out of Putin’s sails by replying that he was willing to break the Ukrainian taboo on negotiating with the Kremlin so long as it occupied its territory. He even said in his television address: “We are prepared to end the war.”
That was a big concession to the invader, but it was accompanied by a demand that Putin agree to a 30-day ceasefire – also demanded by the four European leaders whom Zelensky had just met.
Summit diplomacy can end wars, writes Mark Almond:
Officials in Russia appear to be setting conditions for Vladimir Putin to reject Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to meet in Istanbul for bilateral ceasefire negotiations, a US-based think tank said.
Mr Zelensky’s invitation is “pure spectacle” and “comedy”, according to Russian Federation Council speaker Konstantin Kosachev, further claiming that high-level meetings are not organised in “such a difficult situation”, The Institute for the Study of War said.
Additionally, doubts have been expressed over whether Mr Putin will travel to Istanbul to meet with Mr Zelensky by Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs deputy chairperson Alexei Chepa.
“Kremlin-level officials have not formally responded to Zelensky’s invitation as of this report, although statements from lower-level Russian officials indicate that Putin will likely not travel to Istanbul and meet with Zelensky,” the ISW said.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Russia-Ukraine war latest: Trump hints at gatecrashing Zelensky and Putin’s landmark meeting – The Independent
