After the peace talks, Zelenskyy met with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Albania during a one-day summit. Together, they called Trump.

Delegations from Ukraine and Russia came face to face for talks for the first time since March 2022 – one month after Moscow invaded its neighbour. The setting was an Ottoman- era palace on the shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul.

Russia-Ukraine peace talks finally got underway a day late in Instanbul with little to no expectations after U.S. President Donald Trump said a face-to-face meeting with Putin was the only way forward.