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Peace breakthrough unlikely as Putin skips meeting Zelensky
Russia's Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey on Thursday, 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 US president Donald Trump, who said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Putin.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio later echoed that view, telling reporters in the Turkish resort of Antalya that Washington "didn't have high expectations" for the Ukraine talks in Istanbul.
The head of the Russian delegation, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, said he expected Ukraine's representatives to turn up for the beginning of discussions on Friday in Istanbul at 10am local time.
"We are ready to work," Mr Medinsky said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. He said his delegation had held "productive" talks on Thursday evening with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan.
Namita Singh16 May 2025 04:30
Russia claims to capture two settlements as fighting on frontline continues
Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces seized two more settlements in their drive through eastern Ukraine, but Kyiv made no such acknowledgement and its top commander said battles raged over 1,100km of the front line.
According to Russia, their forces had seized Novooleksandrivka, a village near Pokrovsk, a logistics hub that Moscow has targeted for months without capturing it.
The defence ministry said its forces had also taken Torske, further northeast and near two other cities Moscow would like to capture in the longer term – Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
The General Staff of Ukraine's military, in a late evening report, listed Novooleksandrivka as one of more than dozen settlements which it said had come under Russian attack.
The General Staff made no mention of Torske, but the popular blog DeepState said Russian forces had tried to seize the settlement but had been repelled.
The claims from either side could not be independently verified.
Namita Singh16 May 2025 04:21
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