Russia and Ukraine are due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year war.

A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was due to meet with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.

Russia and Ukraine traded insults on Thursday as negotiators were due to meet in Turkey for the first direct peace talks in more than three years.

Turkey's top diplomat said Thursday said there was cause for hope ahead of Istanbul talks between Russian and Ukrainian mediators in what would be their first direct talks in over three years.

Ukraine appeared to cast doubt on whether peace talks with Russia in Turkey would take place on Thursday, with a senior official saying Kyiv's delegation was waiting for an instruction from President Volodymyr Zelensky.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday a deal was close on Iran's nuclear program that would avoid military action, sending oil prices tumbling as he boasted of raising "trillions of dollars" on a Gulf tour.

A Russian delegation landed in Istanbul on Thursday for the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in more than three years -- but without President Vladimir Putin despite many world leaders urging Russia's leader to attend.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told lawmakers Wednesday that recent arson attacks on properties linked to him represent "an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for."

The remarks by Starmer during weekly prime minister's questions were his first since the fires came to light earlier this week.

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.