A flurry of diplomacy over Russia’s war against Ukraine, centered around the first direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in three years and a long phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin,

Ukraine has a sizable minority of Russian speakers, largely in the east. They also overwhelmingly blame Russia for hostilities.

The meeting between a delegation from Kyiv and Moscow capped off a week of diplomacy that saw world leaders descend on Turkey for a series of talks in Ankara, Antalya and finally Istanbul. It was there that officials from Russia and Ukraine met face-to-face today for the first time in three years.

Kyiv’s European allies have slapped new sanctions on Moscow, a day after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

So much for Donald Trump’s “force of personality” forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to prove he wants to end the war in Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine agreed a large-scale prisoner exchange ... Speaking at a European summit in Albania, the Ukrainian leader urged a “strong reaction” from the world if the talks failed ...

Russia and Ukraine agreed a large-scale prisoner exchange, said they would trade ideas on a possible ceasefire and discussed a potential meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin

Trump boasted that Russia ... reaction. Taken together, the news was hardly encouraging: In the wake of a key diplomatic opportunity, Trump backed off his own goal of an immediate ceasefire in ...

US officials, including Donald Trump, have already downplayed what could be gleaned from what are set to be the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in three years.