
US President Donald Trump "remains willing" to travel to Turkey for a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, his spokeswoman, Carolyn Leavitt, said on Monday.
The US president "has already said he would be willing if that were to happen, but he wants these two leaders and both sides to sit together at the negotiating table," the spokeswoman told reporters, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again proposed holding such a summit, following today's meeting in Istanbul between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
Ukraine has proposed a new round of negotiations with Russia between June 20 and 30, in an attempt to revive efforts to end the war that has entered its third year.
"We propose that the Russian side hold a meeting from June 20 to 30," Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said after meetings held today in Istanbul.
He stressed the need for a direct meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a request that Zelensky has repeated before, without receiving a response from the Kremlin.
At today's meeting, the Russian side was again represented by presidential advisor Vladimir Medinsky, who leads Moscow's negotiating team.