Closing summary
Kyiv still has not received an answer from Moscow over whether Russian president Vladimir Putin will travel for potential peace talks in Turkey, a Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, hours before Moscow said they were due to start.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will not participate in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, the Kommersant daily reported. Reuters could not immediately confirm the Kommersant report, which did not identify a source.
US president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said he and secretary of state Marco Rubio would travel to Istanbul on Friday for Russia-Ukraine talks.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Wednesday that Ukraine’s leadership would decide on its next steps for peace talks in Turkey once there was clarity on Vladimir Putin’s participation. “Everything will depend on whether Putin is scared of coming to Istanbul or not. Based on his response, the Ukrainian leadership will decide on the next steps,” the source said.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged on Wednesday to build up “the strongest conventional army in Europe” as the continent faces a hostile Russia while the Ukraine war rages on, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “This is appropriate for Europe’s most populous and economically powerful country,” Merz told parliament. “Our friends and partners also expect this from us. Indeed, they practically demand it.”
The United States and Europe must put together new sanctions to “suffocate” Russia’s economy in order to force Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine, France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested on suspicion of plotting parcel bomb attacks in Germany on behalf of the Russian state, prosecutors said. The German federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that the men, identified only as Vladyslav T, Daniil B and Yevhen B, in line with German privacy rules, had been detained in recent days in Germany and Switzerland.
Brazil’s president said on Wednesday he would press Vladimir Putin in person to attend negotiations with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey, adding to calls on the Russian leader to enter talks and end Moscow’s invasion.
Failure to achieve a just peace that respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity would undermine international law and cause chaos worldwide, United Nations secretary general António Guterres warned on Wednesday. “It is extremely important in a moment like this that international law prevails,” he said at a conference in Berlin on the UN’s peacekeeping operation.
The foreign ministers of Turkey and Ukraine discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire and lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine, and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s planned Ankara visit, during a meeting on Wednesday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said. Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan and Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha met ahead of an informal Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has an invitation to visit Iran, but the dates have not yet been agreed, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday offered to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself “will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France did not want to unleash “World War III” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and vowed referendums on key issues as he outlined his aims for the remaining two years of his mandate in a marathon television appearance, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In case you missed it earlier, the Kremlin is refusing for the third straight day to say if Vladimir Putin will travel to Istanbul on Thursday, or who will represent Russia at the potential peace talks, as international pressure builds on the Russian leader to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists in Moscow that he would announce the composition of the Russian delegation “once we receive the relevant instructions from the president”.
“So far, no such instructions have been given,” he added.
Zelenskyy challenged Putin to a personal meeting in Turkey after the Russian leader used an unexpected late-night Kremlin address to call for direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations in Istanbul.
