Unclear if Putin will settle for invitation for face-to-face talks as Zelenskyy prepares to commute to Turkey
Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed restarting direct peace talks on Thursday with Ukraine in Istanbul, however Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin chief to fulfill in Turkey in individual.
What will spread stays unclear. The Kremlin has refused to verify who might be going to Turkey and whether or not it’ll come with Putin. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated Zelenskyy will handiest sit down down with the Russian chief, studies the Associated Press (AP).
Zelenskyy stated he had organized to fulfill the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Ankara, however can be in a position to fly to Istanbul at a second’s understand if Putin confirmed up. “If Putin does not arrive and plays games, it is the final point that he does not want to end the war,” he stated on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who’s on a talk over with to the Middle East, looked as if it would drift the speculation of a three-way assembly with Putin and Zelenskyy, pronouncing on Monday:
I imagine the 2 leaders are going to be there [Turkey]. I used to be eager about flying over.
Zelenskyy stated he used to be hoping Trump would certainly meet him in Turkey. “If Trump travels, it will push Putin also to travel,” he stated. “Trump can really help. It’s the situation where the US being present can give important guarantees.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Zelenskyy stated that Trump needed to realise that Putin used to be the true impediment to a peace deal. You can learn our document right here:
Here are every other key traits:
-
The EU on Wednesday licensed a recent bundle of sanctions on Russia, clamping down on its “shadow” oil fleet, as Europe threatens additional punishment if Moscow does no longer conform to a Ukraine truce. Diplomats representing the EU’s 27 member states licensed the bundle at a gathering in Brussels, in keeping with the Polish presidency of the bloc.
-
The EU’s best diplomat, Kaja Kallas, stated in Copenhagen on Tuesday: “I think it’s a good move if they sit down … But I don’t think he dares, Putin.” If Putin does no longer attend, and Zelenskyy does no longer both, talks are nonetheless anticipated to be held at a decrease stage between Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
-
Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, stated that if Putin presentations up, “President Trump will be there”. The US president is visiting the Middle East. Kellogg, in addition to the USA secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Trump’s assets broker good friend Steve Witkoff also are reportedly anticipated in Turkey.
-
The Ukrainian overseas minister, Andrii Sybiha, known as on Brazil to lend a hand convince Putin to visit Istanbul. The leaders of China and Brazil, contributors with Russia of the Brics grouping, stated in a joint observation they was hoping direct discussion may start once imaginable.
-
Brazil’s president stated on Wednesday he’s going to press Putin in individual to wait negotiations with Zelensky in Turkey, including to calls at the Russian chief to go into talks and finish Moscow’s invasion. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will forestall over within the Russian capital at the as far back as Brazil following the belief of a regional discussion board in China. “I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula stated at a press convention in Beijing forward of his departure.
-
French president Emmanuel Macron stated that Ukraine recognizes it can’t retake the entire territory seized through Russia since 2014 and warned that the west didn’t desire a “third world war”. “The war must cease and Ukraine must be in the best possible situation to go into negotiations,” Macron stated. “Even the Ukrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014.”
-
Russian guided bombs hit the north-eastern Ukrainian area of Kharkiv on Tuesday, killing a minimum of 3 folks, an area authentic stated.
-
The Cannes movie pageant has begun through screening 3 2025 Ukraine documentaries: Zelensky; Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Notre Guerre; and The Associated Press-Frontline coproduction 2000 Meters to Andriivka, through Mstyslav Chernov who gained an Oscar for 20 Days in Mariupol. “This ‘Ukraine Day’ is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe,” the pageant stated in a observation.
Key occasions
Trump says he does no longer know if Putin will display as much as talks in Turkey
US president Donald Trump on Wednesday stated he didn’t know if Russian President Vladimir Putin would display up for talks at the conflict in Ukraine deliberate for Thursday in Turkey.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. . … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump informed journalists touring aboard Air Force One en path to Qatar, in keeping with Reuters.
Trump has stated he might talk over with Turkey for the talks as a part of his travel to the Middle East this week.
Putin has invitation to talk over with Iran, however dates have not begun to be set, Kremlin says
Russian president Vladimir Putin has a call for participation to talk over with Iran, however the dates have no longer but been agreed, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Wednesday, in keeping with Reuters.
Iran’s govt spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani used to be quoted through Russian state information company RIA Novosti on Tuesday as pronouncing that Putin’s talk over with to Iran “is currently being worked out”.
Moscow and Tehran signed a 20-year strategic partnership settlement in January, the 2 international locations have provided each and every different with guns, and Russia has defended what it says is Tehran’s proper to non violent nuclear power.
“Indeed, President Putin has an invitation to pay an official or working visit to Iran. The dates have not yet been agreed. As soon as they are agreed, we will inform you,” Peskov informed journalists when requested a few imaginable talk over with. He added:
We extremely price our partnership with this nation and we extremely price the intensity of our dating in all kinds of spaces.
The ultimate time Putin visited Iran used to be in 2022, months after he despatched tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the day past restated his dedication to fulfill Russia’s president for peace talks in Turkey, pronouncing it might be a take a look at of the Kremlin’s determination to pursuing peace.
Zelenskyy stated he deliberate to watch for Putin in Ankara with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, including that they’d commute to Istanbul if Putin opted to carry the talks there. ‘We will do everything to make this meeting happen,’ he stated.
You can pay attention to Zelenskyy’s feedback within the video underneath:
“I worry a lot about a kind of world war one-type scenario,” former White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill informed Lucy Hough, “in which the prevailing system is broken down, and you get a whole outbreak of conflicts that meld together.”
People are all the time asking: ‘What should we be worried about in the future?’ We will have to be anxious in regards to the right here and now.
In the newest version of the Today in Focus podcast, Hill displays on what some other time period of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in energy approach for Europe and the remainder of the sector. She used to be an adviser for Trump right through his first time period in place of work, and sat in at the 2018 Trump-Putin summit.
Hill stated:
He sought after an overly shut dating with Putin, stored speaking about him as his good friend, speaking about telephone calls he had when he hadn’t had telephone calls. He’s finished this with China as neatly.
It’s nearly as though he’s pronouncing: ‘Please call me.’ He’s laid out each and every method during which he may also be manipulated, and that’s what Putin has finished. Putin is a professional in manipulation.
You can pay attention to the complete podcast right here:
The Kremlin stated on Wednesday {that a} Russian delegation can be in Istanbul on Thursday for imaginable direct peace talks with Ukraine, however didn’t reveal who can be there from Moscow’s facet, studies Reuters.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed journalists that Moscow would reveal the names of who’s in its personal delegation as soon as president Vladimir Putin gave the order to take action.
Peskov stated Putin’s be offering of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday nonetheless stood despite the fact that, and that the Russian delegation would watch for their Ukrainian opposite numbers to turn up.
The Kremlin has once more declined to mention who will move to Ukraine talks in Turkey on Thursday, studies Agence France-Presse (AFP).
More main points quickly …
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday presented to mediate between leaders of nations at conflict, pronouncing that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”, studies Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The new US pontiff, who was head of the sector’s 1.4 billion Catholics ultimate week, informed the packed Paul VI corridor on the Vatican that “from the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see!”.
He suggested them to wish for peace, including:
For my section, I will be able to make each and every effort in order that this peace might be successful.
The Holy See is all the time in a position to lend a hand carry enemies in combination, head to head, to speak to each other, in order that peoples all over might over again to find hope and get well the respect they deserve, the respect of peace.
The peoples of our global need peace, and to their leaders I enchantment with all my middle: Let us meet, allow us to communicate, allow us to negotiate!
He used to be talking at a pre-arranged match for the 2025 Jubilee holy yr devoted to the 23 Eastern Catholic church buildings, positioned throughout japanese Europe, the Middle East, India, and portions of Africa.
Germany arrests 3 Ukrainians over Russian sabotage plot
German prosecutors stated on Wednesday they’d arrested 3 Ukrainians accused of plotting sabotage assaults on items transports on behalf of Russia.
The suspects, detained in Germany and Switzerland, had informed folks “believed to be acting on behalf of Russian state authorities” that they had been in a position “to commit arson and explosive attacks on goods transport in Germany”, federal prosecutors stated, in keeping with Agence France-Presse (AFP).
President Emmanuel Macron stated on Tuesday that France didn’t need to unharness “World War III” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and vowed referendums on key problems as he defined his targets for the rest two years of his mandate in a marathon tv look, studies Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We must help Ukraine defend itself but we do not want to unleash a Third World War,” Macron stated within the interview that lasted greater than 3 hours. He added:
The conflict will have to stop and Ukraine will have to be in the most productive imaginable state of affairs to enter negotiations.
But Macron stated France used to be in a position to start out discussing with different European international locations deploying French warplanes armed with nuclear guns on their territory, because the United States does.
“The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey,” Macron stated.
“We are ready to open this discussion. I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come,” he stated.

Jennifer Rankin
The boxy glass and metal tower at a traffic-clogged junction on King Albert II Boulevard infrequently stands proud a few of the different structures within the trade district of north Brussels, the Belgian capital’s resolution to Manhattan or La Défense in Paris.
But not like its neighbours, the establishment housed on this bland postmodern construction reverse a department of Domino’s Pizza is stuck up in a geopolitical maelstrom. It is Euroclear, a little-known frame that homes lots of the Russian state’s frozen property and now reveals itself in the midst of a debate about world justice.
Amid uncertainty about Donald Trump’s dedication to Ukraine, calls are rising to confiscate Russian central financial institution property that had been frozen after the full-scale invasion. Euroclear holds €183bn of Russian sovereign finances out of an estimated €300bn immobilised in western international locations.
In March, about 130 Nobel laureates, together with the peace prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk, known as on western governments to free up the €300bn to rebuild Ukraine and compensate conflict sufferers. “This might require new regulations and laws, which, given the undeniable emergency and gross violations of international law, are appropriate and must be amended,” said the letter, which used to be signed through one of the global’s main economists, scientists and writers.
Under EU legislation, income from the Russian finances are used to assist Ukraine, and the following quantities might be published when Euroclear declares quarterly effects on Wednesday. But the providence income – an estimated €2.5bn-€3bn a yr – are modest when set in opposition to the €506bn that Ukraine wishes for reconstruction over the following decade. (Since that estimate used to be printed through the World Bank in February, Russia’s fatal missile moves have persevered to wreak a devastating toll.)
The EU’s maximum senior diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has sponsored the speculation of the use of the property, as have the overseas ministers of Poland and Lithuania. “Putin has already written off the €300bn assets, he does not expect to get them back. But he also doesn’t think we have the fortitude to take hold of them either. So far, we have proven him right,” stated Poland’s overseas minister, Radek Sikorski, ultimate June.
But for Belgium’s high minister, Bart De Wever, confiscating the property can be “an act of war”.
EU has the same opinion 17th bundle of sanctions on Russia
The EU on Wednesday licensed a recent bundle of sanctions on Russia, clamping down on its “shadow” oil fleet, as Europe threatens additional punishment if Moscow does no longer conform to a Ukraine truce, studies Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The new measures in opposition to the Kremlin – the 17th spherical of sanctions from the EU since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine – had been within the pipeline prior to European leaders issued their newest ultimatum to Moscow over US-led peace efforts.
Diplomats representing the EU’s 27 member states licensed the bundle at a gathering in Brussels, in keeping with the Polish presidency of the bloc.
The bundle – to be officially followed on Tuesday – contains blacklisting 200 oil tankers used to bypass curbs on Russian oil exports. Companies in international locations together with Vietnam, Serbia and Turkey accused of serving to provide items to the Russian army also are to stand restrictions, studies AFP.
Dozens of Russian officers are to be added to the just about 2,400 folks and entities already dealing with visa bans and asset freezes. The bundle additionally brings sanctions on Russian folks over cyber-attacks, human rights abuses and sabotage in Europe.
Officials admit that the newest spherical of sanctions in opposition to Moscow are reasonably restricted in comparison to earlier applications because the EU reveals it tougher to agree objectives.
Further to those measures, EU leaders have threatened Russia with “massive sanctions” if it doesn’t conform to a 30-day ceasefire proposal sponsored through the United States.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Russia on Tuesday that it might face further European sanctions if there used to be no “real progress” this week against peace in Ukraine.
Merz suggested Russian president Vladimir Putin to speak about a Ukraine ceasefire and peace with Ukainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul on Thursday.
Brazil’s Lula says he’s going to press Putin to wait negotiations with Zelensky in Istanbul
Brazil’s president stated on Wednesday he would press Vladimir Putin in individual to wait negotiations with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey, including to calls at the Russian chief to go into talks and finish Moscow’s invasion.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will forestall over within the Russian capital at the as far back as Brazil after the belief of a regional discussion board in China.
“I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula stated at a press convention in Beijing prior to his departure, in keeping with Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It costs me nothing to say, ‘hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, dammit’”, he stated.
The negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Istanbul will be the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow since 2022, in a while after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Lula’s feedback come after the Ukrainian overseas minister on Tuesday suggested Brazil to make use of its affect with Russia and make a gathering between Putin and Zelensky occur. They additionally come after Brazil and China issued a joint observation on Tuesday calling for direct negotiations because the “only way to end the conflict”.
The Kremlin has no longer but specified whether or not Putin will attend in individual, declaring handiest that the “Russian delegation will be present”.
Unclear if Putin will settle for invitation for face-to-face talks as Zelenskyy prepares to commute to Turkey
Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed restarting direct peace talks on Thursday with Ukraine in Istanbul, however Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin chief to fulfill in Turkey in individual.
What will spread stays unclear. The Kremlin has refused to verify who might be going to Turkey and whether or not it’ll come with Putin. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated Zelenskyy will handiest sit down down with the Russian chief, studies the Associated Press (AP).
Zelenskyy stated he had organized to fulfill the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Ankara, however can be in a position to fly to Istanbul at a second’s understand if Putin confirmed up. “If Putin does not arrive and plays games, it is the final point that he does not want to end the war,” he stated on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who’s on a talk over with to the Middle East, looked as if it would drift the speculation of a three-way assembly with Putin and Zelenskyy, pronouncing on Monday:
I imagine the 2 leaders are going to be there [Turkey]. I used to be eager about flying over.
Zelenskyy stated he used to be hoping Trump would certainly meet him in Turkey. “If Trump travels, it will push Putin also to travel,” he stated. “Trump can really help. It’s the situation where the US being present can give important guarantees.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Zelenskyy stated that Trump needed to realise that Putin used to be the true impediment to a peace deal. You can learn our document right here:
Here are every other key traits:
-
The EU on Wednesday licensed a recent bundle of sanctions on Russia, clamping down on its “shadow” oil fleet, as Europe threatens additional punishment if Moscow does no longer conform to a Ukraine truce. Diplomats representing the EU’s 27 member states licensed the bundle at a gathering in Brussels, in keeping with the Polish presidency of the bloc.
-
The EU’s best diplomat, Kaja Kallas, stated in Copenhagen on Tuesday: “I think it’s a good move if they sit down … But I don’t think he dares, Putin.” If Putin does no longer attend, and Zelenskyy does no longer both, talks are nonetheless anticipated to be held at a decrease stage between Ukrainian and Russian delegations.
-
Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, stated that if Putin presentations up, “President Trump will be there”. The US president is visiting the Middle East. Kellogg, in addition to the USA secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Trump’s assets broker good friend Steve Witkoff also are reportedly anticipated in Turkey.
-
The Ukrainian overseas minister, Andrii Sybiha, known as on Brazil to lend a hand convince Putin to visit Istanbul. The leaders of China and Brazil, contributors with Russia of the Brics grouping, stated in a joint observation they was hoping direct discussion may start once imaginable.
-
Brazil’s president stated on Wednesday he’s going to press Putin in individual to wait negotiations with Zelensky in Turkey, including to calls at the Russian chief to go into talks and finish Moscow’s invasion. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will forestall over within the Russian capital at the as far back as Brazil following the belief of a regional discussion board in China. “I’ll try to talk to Putin,” Lula stated at a press convention in Beijing forward of his departure.
-
French president Emmanuel Macron stated that Ukraine recognizes it can’t retake the entire territory seized through Russia since 2014 and warned that the west didn’t desire a “third world war”. “The war must cease and Ukraine must be in the best possible situation to go into negotiations,” Macron stated. “Even the Ukrainians have the clear-sightedness to say they do not have the capacity to retake everything that has been taken since 2014.”
-
Russian guided bombs hit the north-eastern Ukrainian area of Kharkiv on Tuesday, killing a minimum of 3 folks, an area authentic stated.
-
The Cannes movie pageant has begun through screening 3 2025 Ukraine documentaries: Zelensky; Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Notre Guerre; and The Associated Press-Frontline coproduction 2000 Meters to Andriivka, through Mstyslav Chernov who gained an Oscar for 20 Days in Mariupol. “This ‘Ukraine Day’ is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe,” the pageant stated in a observation.