The talks have taken place in the warring capitals of Moscow and Kyiv, from Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to countries across Europe. Now, all eyes are finally turning to Istanbul to seek an end to Russia's 3-year-old, full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed restarting direct peace talks Thursday with Ukraine in the Turkish city that straddles Asia and Europe. And President Volodymyr Zelenskyy challenged the Kremlin leader to meet in Turkey in person.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was willing to head to Turkey for talks on Ukraine if his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin also travelled there.

"I don't know that he (Putin) would be there if I'm not there. I know he would like me to be there, and that's a possibility. If we could end the war, I'd be thinking about that," Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.

Pope Leo XIV vowed to take "every effort" Wednesday to work for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine and to actively promote the spirituality and traditions of the eastern rite churches, those Catholic communities with origins in the Mideast and eastern Europe that have been decimated by years of conflict and persecution.

"The church needs you!" Leo told a Holy Year audience of eastern rite pilgrims.

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday offered to mediate between leaders of countries at war, saying that he himself "will make every effort so that this peace may prevail".

"The Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace. The peoples of our world desire peace, and to their leaders I appeal with all my heart: Let us meet, let us talk, let us negotiate!" he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches.

Rights groups and NGOs took the UK government to court on Tuesday accusing it of breaching international law by supplying fighter jet parts to Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Supported by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and others, the Palestinian rights association Al-Haq is seeking to stop the government's export of UK-made components for Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

The European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Tuesday she didn't think Russian President Vladimir Putin would turn up for talks in Turkey this week with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United States on Tuesday to levy its most hard-hitting package of sanctions on Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects a call to meet in Turkey this week.

Iran is open to accepting temporary limits on its uranium enrichment, its deputy foreign minister said Tuesday, while adding that talks with the United States have yet to address such specifics.

Russia has been "completely ignoring" a 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by Kyiv and its allies and is attacking "all along" the front line, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said Monday.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday urged Russia and Ukraine to come together "as soon as possible" to start a ceasefire agreement ahead of planned talks in Istanbul this week.

"We invite the parties to come together as soon as possible and start the ceasefire," he told a joint press conference in Ankara with his Syrian and Jordanian counterparts