Russia, Ukraine and seek peace—but
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Vladimir Putin rejected calls to join direct talks with Ukraine's leader in Turkey, seemingly unphased by mounting pressure from Trump to strike a peace deal.
By Tom Balmforth and Vladimir Soldatkin ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a second-tier team of negotiators to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, spurning Kyiv's challenge to go there in person to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
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.
The talks in Istanbul complicated a European push for the United States to pressure Russia into a ceasefire in Ukraine.