The renewed diplomatic push comes under growing pressure from Trump and heavy bombardments.

Russia has proposed a new round of direct talks with Ukraine in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Monday with the goal of securing a lasting ceasefire, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says, after heavy bombardment of its neighbour and aerial exchanges in the past week.

“We hope that all those who are sincerely, and not just in words, interested in the success of the peace process will support holding a new round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul,” Lavrov said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kyiv responded a short time later, saying it had already submitted its version of the memorandum on peace to the Russian delegation.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov urged Moscow to share its version without delay: “We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their ‘memorandum’, so that the meeting won’t be empty and can truly move us closer to ending the war”, he said.

“The Russian side has at least four more days before their departure to provide us with their document for review,” he added.

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The Moscow proposal followed a rare meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul on May 16, the first direct contact in more than three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The talks resulted in an exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war each, but failed to produce a ceasefire, which remains a key demand of Ukraine and its Western allies. Moscow has insisted that certain conditions must be met before halting military operations.

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation, said on Telegram that he had contacted Umerov to suggest a date and venue for the next meeting.

“Let me emphasise: right there, on the spot, we are ready to begin an essential, substantive discussion of each of the points of the package agreement on a possible ceasefire,” Medinsky said, adding that he expected a reply from Ukraine.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari in Moscow said the Russians had been preparing this for the last few days after a meeting with Turkish officials on Tuesday.

At the top of Russia’s agenda is “likely to be a list of demands, about what a possible ceasefire deal would look like. Russia has made it very clear that they are not going to back down by ensuring their security is a top priority,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, added that from the Ukrainian perspective, Russia is making “maximalist demands” by blocking Ukraine from joining NATO, asking Kyiv to withdraw troops from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, and imposing limits on the size of the Ukrainian military – all of which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said is off the table.

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War of words

The renewed diplomatic push from Moscow comes after growing pressure from United States President Donald Trump. Speaking on Wednesday, he suggested that Russian leader Vladimir Putin might be stalling the peace process.

“We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little differently,” Trump said, likely referring to imposing more sanctions on Moscow as Ukraine’s European allies have done recently.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Trump appeared “not sufficiently informed about what is really happening in the context of the Ukrainian-Russian confrontation”.

Trump, who has previously expressed scepticism about the effectiveness of sanctions, said he was reluctant to impose new penalties on Moscow, fearing they could derail the fragile ceasefire efforts.

“If I think I’m close to getting a deal, I don’t want to screw it up by doing that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump warned on Tuesday that Putin was “playing with fire” and suggested “really bad” things would have already happened to Russia were it not for his intervention.

On Monday, Trump lambasted Putin, describing him as “absolutely crazy” after Moscow launched its largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine, killing at least 13 people. It was a rare rebuke of Putin from the US president.

In the meantime, Lavrov spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday to discuss preparations for a next round of direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

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The ministry said Lavrov briefed Rubio on Russia’s efforts to implement agreements reached after a phone call between Putin and Trump on May 19.

Putin previously said Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on drafting a memorandum for a future peace accord, but nevertheless has resisted any move towards an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

Germany and Ukraine to jointly produce long-range missiles

Meanwhile, Germany and Ukraine announced plans to jointly develop long-range missiles as part of their deepening defence cooperation.

“Our defence ministers will sign a memorandum of understanding today regarding the procurement of Ukrainian-made long-range weapons systems,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a joint news conference in Berlin with Zelenskyy on Wednesday.

“There will be no range restrictions, allowing Ukraine to fully defend itself, even against military targets outside its own territory,” he added.

Merz had announced two days earlier that Ukraine’s Western allies had lifted range restrictions on the weapons they have been supplying.

The Kremlin has previously warned that any long-range Western-provided weapons, such as Taurus missiles, striking inside the country would be seen as an escalation.

Putin tells Trump he will respond to Ukraine’s airfield attack in phone call

We’ve just heard from Donald Trump on Truth Social, who says he has just finished a phone call with Vladimir Putin that an hour and 15 minutes.

He said the pair discussed Ukraine’s attack on multiple airbases deep inside Russia over the weekend and revealed that Putin said he would have to respond to the attack.

Trump referred to the call as a “good conversation” but said it was not one that will lead to “immediate peace”…

It is the first time the US president has spoken to his Russian counterpart in just over two weeks, with their last call held on 19 May.

That conversation lasted two hours, and Trump described it at the time as being “excellent”.

As violence intensifies in the fourth year of the war, Ukraine launched a dramatic strike on a key Crimean bridge while Russia responded with deadly artillery fire in the northeastern city of Sumy, killing at least three and injuring 25.

Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed responsibility for an underwater explosion targeting the Kerch Strait Bridge, a crucial link between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula. While the full extent of the damage is still being assessed, the symbolic attack comes just days after stalled peace talks in Turkey and appears aimed at demonstrating Ukraine’s continued military resolve to U.S. President Donald Trump and Western allies.

The Kremlin, which views the bridge as a personal and strategic milestone for President Vladimir Putin, accused Ukraine of escalating hostilities and endangering civilians. Russian officials reported widespread power outages in southern regions, including Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, where Ukrainian shelling reportedly damaged electricity infrastructure, leaving some 700,000 residents in the dark.

Over the weekend, Ukraine also carried out drone strikes deep into Russian territory, hitting military airfields and reportedly destroying dozens of warplanes. In retaliation, Russian investigators accused Ukraine of orchestrating attacks on railway bridges that caused deadly train crashes in the Kursk and Bryansk regions, resulting in seven deaths and over 100 injuries.

Meanwhile, senior Ukrainian officials, including Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, and Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenk,o arrived in Washington to seek increased military support and tougher sanctions against Moscow. Yermak said they intend to discuss frontline conditions, sanctions expansion, and a proposed U.S.-Ukraine investment fund aimed at reconstructing war-torn regions and advancing mineral development projects.

The visit comes after failed talks in Istanbul, where Russia demanded territorial concessions and military restrictions as conditions for peace terms that Ukraine flatly rejected. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov admitted no breakthrough was likely, citing the “complexity” of the situation.

As battlefield tensions escalate and diplomacy falters, Ukraine is leaning on its Western allies to maintain pressure on Moscow and bolster its defensive capabilities amid the deadliest conflict Europe has seen since World War II.

This audio is created with AI assistance

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that Moscow has no interest in negotiations and agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying on May 21 that “we don’t want this anymore.”

Describing the U.S.-led push for a full, 30-day truce as a “let’s have a ceasefire and then we’ll see” tactic, Lavrov insisted the “root causes” of the war need to be resolved first.

“We have already been in these stories, we don’t want this anymore,” Lavrov said, referring to failed negotiations between Moscow and Ukraine following the onset of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a full ceasefire in March. Ukraine immediately agreed and the initiative has been backed by Kyiv’s European allies.

Russia has consistently refused, culminating in a phone call on May 19 between Trump and Vladimir Putin, during which the Russian president once again rejected the proposal, instead insisting on negotiating a “memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty.”

Trump briefed European leaders on the contents of the call, telling them that Putin is not ready for peace in Ukraine because he believes he is winning the war, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 22.

The same European leaders were reportedly seemed “surprised” that Trump was “relatively content” with what he heard from Putin, Axios reported on May 20.

During a talk with students at a Russian university, Lavrov also accused European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, of pushing Trump to tighten sanctions against Russia.

Russia initiated peace talks with Ukraine, which took place on May 16, following Moscow’s rejection of calls from Ukraine and its allies for an immediate ceasefire.

The talks were largely inconclusive. Russia announced its delegation would consist of low-level officials, led by Putin’s aide, Vladimir Medinsky. Moscow reiterated maximalist demands, including that Ukraine accept the loss of Crimea and four eastern regions.

Putin did not attend the Istanbul peace talks on May 16, despite an invitation from President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet him face-to-face.

Lavrov was also absent from the peace talks, signalling Russia’s unwillingness to make progress at the Istanbul negotiations.

Russia launched war’s largest drone attack ahead of Putin-Trump call, Ukraine says

18 May 2025 Share Save Danai Nesta Kupemba BBC News Share Save

Reuters Residents survey the damage to their homes after a Russian drone strike on Saturday night on suburbs outside of Kyiv

Ukraine says Russia has launched its biggest drone attack since the full-scale invasion began, targeting several regions including Kyiv, where one woman died. The barrage came just a day before a scheduled call between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US President has been urging a ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face talks in more than three years on Friday in Turkey, agreeing a new prisoner swap deal but little else. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 273 drones by 08:00 Sunday (05:00 GMT) targeting the central Kyiv region, and Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in the east.

It said 88 drones were intercepted and another 128 went astray “without negative consequences”. The strikes killed one person in Obukhiv district in the Kyiv region, and injured at least three others – one of whom was a four-year-old child – officials reported. The previous largest drone attack from Russia happened on the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion on 23 February, when Moscow launched 267 drones. Russia’s military said it had intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that he and leaders of the UK, France, and Poland would have a virtual meeting with Trump before his conversation with Putin on Monday morning. The four leaders jointly visited Ukraine over two weeks ago to spearhead calls for a 30-day-ceasefire, backed by the so-called “coalition of the willing”. Ukraine’s intelligence agency has said it believes Russia could be planning to carry out a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight, as an attempted intimidation. Russia has not responded to the claim.

Reuters Firefighters at a site outside Kyiv that was hit on Sunday morning