The US and European leaders are placing their hopes in the Vatican to engage Russia and Ukraine in peace talks, after President Donald Trump said Pope Leo XIV had expressed interest in the idea. The Kremlin isn’t so keen.

Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscow's invasion in 2022 and days after U.

A Kremlin spokesman says Russia and Ukraine have no scheduled direct peace talks. The statement Thursday came nearly a week after their first face-to-face meeting since the early weeks of Moscow's invasion in 2022 and days after U.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said after a two-hour call with Vladimir Putin that peace talks would begin “immediately” after his Russian counterpart refused to attend negotiations May 15 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cast doubt on Friday (May 23) over the Vatican as a potential location for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, saying that the Holy See itself would find it uncomfortable to host two mainly Orthodox Christian nations.

Ukraine rallied support from its Western allies on Friday after Kyiv and Moscow failed to agree to a ceasefire at their first direct talks in more than three years, with Russia presenting conditions that a Ukrainian source described as "non-starters".

After dangling the possibility of his attendance, Trump said he would stay away but still wants to meet with Putin, further weakening the Istanbul talks.

Major Moscow airports shut after Kyiv’s overnight drone strikes - Flight operations suspended at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports