US President Donald Trump offered to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey later this week noting that ‘these talks could be helpful’ to start the peace process. Trump spoke a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he would travel to Istanbul and wait there to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What Trump said? 

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he might join the talks in Istanbul on Thursday while in the region. His current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.

“I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done,” he said.

“Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkey,” Trump and further added.

Will Vladimir Putin join the peace talks? 

Kremlin was silent about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend, as per a AFP report. 

Putin proposed the talks as a counteroffer to a 30-day ceasefire put forward by Kyiv and its allies, but while Zelensky said he would attend “personally”, the Kremlin declined to say whom Russia would send.

The negotiations, planned to take place in Istanbul on Thursday, would be the first direct meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials since the early months of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

‘Russian attacks had continues,’ says Zelensky

In his nightly video address, the Ukrainian president noted that Russian attacks had continued on the front lines throughout the day, and Moscow still had not responded to his call for Putin to meet him for talks in Turkey later in the week.

“Russian shelling and assaults continue,” Zelensky said. “Moscow has remained silent all day regarding the proposal for a direct meeting. A very strange silence.”

European countries threaten to ramp up Russia sanctions

Meanwhile foreign ministers threatened to step up sanctions on Russia at a crunch meeting in London on Monday, as the continent’s top diplomat accused the Kremlin of “playing games” over peace negotiations with Ukraine.

In a joint statement after their meeting in the British capital, the foreign ministers said they were concerned that Russia “had not shown any serious intent to make progress.”

“It must do so without delay,” the ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the EU said.