ISTANBUL − Russia's Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey, instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, while Ukraine's president said his defence minister would head up Kyiv's team.

Deputy special envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus discusses U.S. nuclear talks with Iran and attempts to secure peace between Russia and Ukraine on ‘The Will Cain Show.’

Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived in Turkey yesterday for what would be the first peace talks in three years, but they spent much of the day in different cities, questioning whether they would even meet.

By Andrew Osborn (Reuters) -As Russian President Vladimir Putin explores a potential peace settlement to end the war in Ukraine, hawkish anti-Western nationalists at home are waging a campaign to keep the conflict going.

Last weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the war in Ukraine. First, European leaders assembled in Kyiv on Saturday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire.

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.

European shares reversed early declines to close higher on Thursday, with industrial stocks getting the biggest boost, while corporate earnings remained in the spotlight.

President Donald Trump offered another glimpse of an emerging, sometimes contradictory foreign policy doctrine: trying to end various conflicts around the globe while vowing not to withdraw from the world entirely.