Turkey will take part in two trilateral meetings on Friday (May 16) in Istanbul as part of renewed diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said, Reuters reports.
A meeting between Turkish, U.S. and Ukrainian officials is scheduled to take place at 0745 GMT at the Dolmabahce Palace, followed by talks between Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian delegations at 0930 GMT, the sources said.
Russia's Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Turkey on Thursday (May 15), instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, while Ukraine's president said his defence minister would head up Kyiv's team.
They will be the first direct talks between the sides since March 2022, but hopes of a major breakthrough were further dented by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Putin.
