Trump offers to join Russia-Ukraine talks

ROME, May 13 (Reuters/AFP): US and European diplomats went on a flurry of calls in the hours after US President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks later this week, trying to find a path that would bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump's surprise offer to join the talks on Thursday in Istanbul came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel to Turkey and wait to meet President Vladimir Putin there.
After Trump's announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the "way forward for a ceasefire" in Ukraine with European counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Britain and France, and the EU's foreign policy chief, the State Department said on Monday.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his German and Polish counterparts were also on the call, according to the readout.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks late on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan to discuss Moscow's direct talks with Kyiv - a proposal that came from Putin at the weekend, the Russian foreign ministry said.
It remained unclear who would travel from Moscow to Istanbul to take part in the direct talks, which would be the first between the two sides since the early days of the war that Russia launched with its invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
There has been no response from the Kremlin to Zelenskiy's offer to meet Putin in Istanbul and Moscow was yet to comment on Trump's offer to join the talks.
If Zelenskiy and Putin, who make no secret of their contempt for each other, were to meet on Thursday it would be their first face-to-face meeting since December 2019.
"Don't underestimate Thursday in Turkey," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Trump's current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine on Tuesday said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin skips talks in Turkey on Thursday with Volodymyr Zelensky, it would be a clear sign that Moscow does not want to halt its invasion.
"If Vladimir Putin refuses to come to Turkey, it will be the final signal that Russia does not want to end this war, that Russia is not willing and not ready for any negotiations," Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak said in a statement published by the Ukrainian presidency.
Kremlin gives no comment on
Zelensky call for Putin meeting
The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for Vladimir Putin to attend peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday.
"The Russian side continues to prepare for the talks scheduled for Thursday. That is all we can say at this point. We do not intend to comment further at this time," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.