Russia’s Vladimir Putin spurned a challenge to meet face-to-face with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Turkey on Thursday, instead sending a second-tier delegation to planned peace talks, while the Ukrainian president said his defence minister would head up Kyiv’s team. They will be the first direct talks between the sides since March 2022, but hopes of a major breakthrough were further dented by U.S. President Donald Trump who said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Putin. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later echoed that view, tellingRead more