Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top negotiator, said the U.S. would be looking to talks from early in the war as a basis for a deal. Ukraine’s supporters saw it as an embrace of a Kremlin talking point.

Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says the United States has not officially proposed that Ukraine return to the so-called "Istanbul agreements" for a "peaceful settlement" of the war.

US officials will meet with their Russian counterparts in Istanbul, Türkiye, on Thursday, 27 February, to discuss embassy operations, though the issue of Ukraine will not be tackled. Source: Reuters,

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Washington to sign a dictated agreement that only "partially" includes security guarantees for Ukraine, Donald Trump shut the door on Kyiv’s NATO aspirations.

Russian and U.S. diplomats will meet in Istanbul on Thursday for talks aimed at restoring their respective diplomatic missions, seen as a step towards ending the war in Ukraine, both sides said on Wednesday.

US and Russian diplomats will meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss re-establishing their diplomatic missions, as the Trump administration departs from decades of American policy towards Russia and warms to Moscow.

Putin has often said the 2022 peace negotiations in Istanbul could serve as a framework for peace talks with Ukraine.

Kyiv signing the Istanbul communique may have quickly stopped the war and the killing. But the Kremlin has repeatedly shown it cannot be trusted to adhere to agreements – you only have to look at the way it repeatedly violated the Minsk accords of 2015, which attempted to end hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

Putin hailed the Trump administration's "pragmatism and realistic view” compared with what he described as the “stereotypes and messianic ideological cliches” of its predecessors.

The top figure in Eastern Orthodox Christianity on Sunday has said “Ukraine’s sovereignty is not up for debate, nor can it be negotiated under the guise of diplomacy,” as he celebrated Mass in Istanbu

Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters A suggestion by the Trump administration’s top negotiator that a Ukraine peace deal would be based on talks conducted in Istanbul nearly three years ago has buoyed ...