Russian delegation to meet Ukrainian officials in Turkey, but unclear if Putin will attend
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(LONDON) — Moscow on Wednesday said it would send a delegation to Istanbul to meet with Ukrainian officials, potentially bringing diplomats from the two at-war countries together for the first known in-person direct talks in more than three years.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday that Russian diplomats would travel to Turkey, but didn’t detail which officials would be present.
The confirmation followed an act of one-upmanship from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who on Wednesday said he would be willing to meet personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin, should the latter decide to travel to Turkey.
“We are ready for such direct diplomacy to put an end to killings and advance real peace,” Zelenskyy said on social media “And this must certainly be discussed with the person who makes decisions in Russia.”
Peskov, who spoke in Moscow on Wednesday, wouldn’t confirm which Russian officials would be present. Putin had on Sunday proposed the direct talks.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Russia launched more than 100 drones into Ukraine following the conclusion of a phone call between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s air force said, and as the world waited for what Trump said would be an immediate resumption of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram that its forces shot down 35 of the 108 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, with a further 58 jammed or otherwise neutralized while in flight. The air force reported damage on the ground in four Ukrainian regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down eight Ukrainian drones overnight.
Cross-border drone exchanges occur near-nightly and have increased in size and sophistication throughout the 3-year-old war. Monday night’s barrage came despite Trump’s latest assurance that a peace deal between the two sides is possible, following a phone call with Putin that lasted two hours.
“I think something’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after the call. “It’s a very, very big egos involved, I tell you, big egos involved. But I think something’s going to happen. And if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out.”
Despite the failure of peace talks to date — including a chaotic meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Istanbul, Turkey, last week — Trump still appeared confident of success.
In a post to his Truth Social website on Monday, Trump said Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” start negotiations toward a ceasefire. Kyiv has repeatedly requested a full 30-day pause to the fighting to facilitate peace talks. The Kremlin has so far dodged the proposal.
When questioned if he had asked Putin to meet with him during the call on Monday, Trump replied, “Of course.”
“I said, ‘When are we going to end this, Vladimir?'” Trump said. “I said, ‘When are we going to end this bloodshed, this, this bloodbath?’ It’s a bloodbath. And, I do believe he wants to end it.”
Putin’s own statement showed no sign of concessions. “Russia’s position is clear,” the president said in a statement to the media after the call. “Eliminating the root causes of this crisis is what matters most to us,” Putin said, per a Kremlin readout.
Trump’s threats of new sanctions on Russia do not appear to have pushed the Kremlin away from its maximalist war goals, which essentially equate to Ukrainian capitulation.
Those demands include the annexation of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions — plus the retention of Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014 — Kyiv’s demilitarization, a permanent block on Ukrainian accession to NATO and the “denazification” of the country — a nebulous demand based on Russia’s false representation of the Ukrainian government as a far-right dictatorship.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — with whom Trump also spoke on Monday — has sought to present Kyiv as ready and willing to make peace, instead framing Putin as the key obstacle to Trump’s desired deal.
“This is a defining time,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post to Telegram on Monday. “Now the world can see whether its leaders have the capacity to ensure an end to the war and the establishment of a real, lasting peace.”
“I confirmed to President Trump that we in Ukraine are ready for a complete and unconditional ceasefire, as the United States, in particular, has been talking about,” he continued.
“It is important not to dilute this offer. If the Russians are not ready to stop the killings, there must be stronger sanctions for that. Pressure on Russia will encourage it to make real peace — this is obvious to everyone in the world,” he said.
“We must ensure that Russia is prepared to hold such productive negotiations,” Zelensyy wrote.” It is very important for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the negotiations and achieving peace, because the only one interested in this is Putin.”
If Putin drags out or blocks real negotiations, Zelenskyy said, “America and the whole world behave accordingly, including responding with additional sanctions. Russia must end the war that it started, and it can do so any day. Ukraine is always ready for peace.”
(LONDON) — The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused President Donald Trump of undermining “global strategic balance and stability” by pushing ahead on his “Golden Dome” missile defense shield program — and urged the U.S. to abandon the project.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the project at an Oval Office briefing on Tuesday, confirming reports that the administration was seeking to establish a missile defense umbrella the president said would be capable of “intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space.”
The project will cost around $175 billion and be operational in three years, Trump said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a Wednesday briefing that the proposed shield will “heighten the risk of turning the space into a war zone and creating a space arms race and shake the international security and arms control system,” according to a readout posted to the ministry’s website.
“It plans to expand the U.S. arsenal of means for combat operations in outer space, including R&D and deployment of orbital interception systems,” Mao said.
“That gives the project a strong offensive nature and violates the principle of peaceful use in the Outer Space Treaty,” she added, referring to the 1967 agreement which — among other things — prohibited the use of nuclear weapons in space and limited any usage of all “celestial bodies” for peaceful purposes.
“This is yet another ‘America First’ initiative that puts the U.S.’ absolute security above all else,” Mao continued. “It violates the principle of ‘undiminished security for all’ and will hurt global strategic balance and stability,” she said. “China is gravely concerned.”
“We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system, and take concrete actions to enhance strategic trust between major countries and uphold global strategic stability,” Mao said.
Trump began calling for a U.S. missile defense shield inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome — which is used to intercept short-range projectiles — a year ago on the campaign trail after watching Israel and its Western allies defeat some 300 missiles and drones fired during an attack by Iran. The attack was thwarted by a range of anti-missile systems and military aircraft.
Military officials said at the time that they hadn’t expressed a need for such a comprehensive shield to defend the U.S. Critics of Trump’s plan noted the U.S. wasn’t under threat from its neighbors, Canada and Mexico, and is buffered by two oceans.
The “Golden Dome” project has echoes of the failed Cold War-era “Star Wars” program, which likewise sought to introduce a defense umbrella against nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. At the time, critics — including leaders in the Soviet Union — said such a project was both unworkable and could spark a new arms race.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty, Luis Martinez and Nathan Luna contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — A 6.2 magnitude earthquake has rattled much of Turkey Wednesday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The quake occurred at a depth of just 6.2 miles with the epicenter of the quake located approximately 14 miles southeast of Marmara Ereğlisi and 70 miles west of Istanbul.
No casualties have been reported so far, but hospitals reported that many patients were admitted due to anxiety and panic as citizens could be seen rushing into the streets and parks.
ABC News’ Engin Bas and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
