Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday for a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan, while in Istanbul Russian and Ukranian officials were separately expected to begin peace talks.

For days, President Donald Trump repeatedly floated the possibility of scrapping his Middle East travel schedule — one his team meticulously crafted for weeks — and adding a stop to personally mediate Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey.

March 29, 2022: Talks begin in Istanbul, with Moscow saying it’s willing to “fundamentally cut back” military activity near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv, while Ukraine said it was open to discussing neutral status for Ukraine if its security is backed by other nations.

Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday urged the West not to be divided on Ukraine and vowed to provide the financial means needed to build Germany's conventional army up into Europe's strongest.