US and European diplomats went on a flurry of calls in the hours after US President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks later this week, trying to find a path that would bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump’s surprise offer to join the talks on Thursday in Istanbul came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel to Turkiye and wait to meet President Vladimir Putin there.
After Trump’s announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the “way forward for a ceasefire” in Ukraine with European counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Britain and France, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, the State Department said on Monday.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his German and Polish counterparts were also on the call, according to the readout.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks late on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan to discuss Moscow’s direct talks with Kyiv — a proposal that came from Putin at the weekend, the Russian foreign ministry said.
It remained unclear who would travel from Moscow to Istanbul to take part in the direct talks, which would be the first between the two sides since the early days of the war that Russia launched with its invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.
There has been no response from the Kremlin to Zelensky’s offer to meet Putin in Istanbul and Moscow was yet to comment on Trump’s offer to join the talks.
If Zelensky and Putin, who make no secret of their contempt for each other, were to meet on Thursday it would be their first face-to-face meeting since December 2019.
“Don’t underestimate Thursday in Turkiye,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Trump’s current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.
Ukraine and its European allies have been seeking to put pressure on Moscow to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday, with the leaders of four major European powers traveling to Kyiv on Saturday to show unity with Zelensky.
Earlier on Monday, the German government said Europe would start preparing new sanctions against Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of the day started abiding by the ceasefire.
Ukraine’s military said on Monday that fighting along parts of the frontline in the country’s east was at the same intensity it would be if there were no ceasefire.
Putin called the Western European and Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire “ultimatums” that the Kremlin said on Monday are for Russia an unacceptable language.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, told the Izvestia media outlet in remarks published on Tuesday that the talks between Moscow and Kyiv can move further than they did in the 2022.
“If the Ukrainian delegation shows up at these talks with a mandate to abandon any ultimatums and look for common ground, I am sure that we could move forward even further than we did,” Izvestia cited Kosachev as saying.
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Rush of diplomatic calls follow Trump’s offer to join potential Russia-Ukraine talks
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Rush of diplomatic calls follow Trump’s offer to join potential Russia-Ukraine talks
- US, European, Russia key diplomats hold separate calls
- Trump offers to join potential Russia-Ukraine talks on Thursday
Peru Congress to debate impeachment of interim president
LIMA: Peru’s Congress is set to consider Tuesday whether to impeach interim president Jose Jeri, the country’s seventh head of state in 10 years, accused of the irregular hiring of several women in his government.
A motion to oust Jeri, 39, received the backing of dozens of lawmakers on claims of influence peddling, the latest of a series of impeachment bids against him.
The session, set for 10:00 am local time (1500 GMT), is expected to last several hours.
Jeri, in office since October, took over from unpopular leader Dina Boluarte who was ousted by lawmakers amid protests against corruption and a wave of violence linked to organized crime.
Prosecutors said Friday they were opening an investigation into “whether the head of state exercised undue influence” in the government appointments of nine women on his watch.
On Sunday, Jeri told Peruvian TV: “I have not committed any crime.”
Jeri, a onetime leader of Congress himself, was appointed to serve out the remainder of Boluarte’s term, which runs until July, when a new president will take over following elections on April 12.
He is constitutionally barred from seeking election in April.
The alleged improper appointments were revealed by investigative TV program Cuarto Poder, which said five women were given jobs in the president’s office and the environment ministry after visiting with Jeri.
Prosecutors spoke of a total of nine women.
Jeri is also under investigation for alleged “illegal sponsorship of interests” following a secret meeting with a Chinese businessman with commercial ties with the government.
- Institutional crisis -
The speed with which the censure process is being handled has been attributed by some political observers as linked to the upcoming presidential election, which has over 30 candidates tossing their hat into the ring, a record.
The candidate from the right-wing Popular Renewal party, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, who currently leads in polls, has been among the most vocal for Jeri’s ouster.
If successfully impeached, Jeri would cease to exercise his functions and be replaced by the head of parliament as interim president.
But first a new parliamentary president would have to be elected, as the incumbent is acting in an interim capacity.
“It will be difficult to find a replacement with political legitimacy in the current Congress, with evidence of mediocrity and strong suspicion of widespread corruption,” political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP.
Peru is experiencing a prolonged political crisis, which has seen it burn through six presidents since 2016, several of them impeached or under investigation for wrongdoing.
It is also gripped by a wave of extortion that has claimed dozens of lives, particularly of bus drivers — some shot at the wheel if their companies refuse to pay protection money.
In two years, the number of extortion cases reported in Peru jumped more than tenfold — from 2,396 to over 25,000 in 2025.
A motion to oust Jeri, 39, received the backing of dozens of lawmakers on claims of influence peddling, the latest of a series of impeachment bids against him.
The session, set for 10:00 am local time (1500 GMT), is expected to last several hours.
Jeri, in office since October, took over from unpopular leader Dina Boluarte who was ousted by lawmakers amid protests against corruption and a wave of violence linked to organized crime.
Prosecutors said Friday they were opening an investigation into “whether the head of state exercised undue influence” in the government appointments of nine women on his watch.
On Sunday, Jeri told Peruvian TV: “I have not committed any crime.”
Jeri, a onetime leader of Congress himself, was appointed to serve out the remainder of Boluarte’s term, which runs until July, when a new president will take over following elections on April 12.
He is constitutionally barred from seeking election in April.
The alleged improper appointments were revealed by investigative TV program Cuarto Poder, which said five women were given jobs in the president’s office and the environment ministry after visiting with Jeri.
Prosecutors spoke of a total of nine women.
Jeri is also under investigation for alleged “illegal sponsorship of interests” following a secret meeting with a Chinese businessman with commercial ties with the government.
- Institutional crisis -
The speed with which the censure process is being handled has been attributed by some political observers as linked to the upcoming presidential election, which has over 30 candidates tossing their hat into the ring, a record.
The candidate from the right-wing Popular Renewal party, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, who currently leads in polls, has been among the most vocal for Jeri’s ouster.
If successfully impeached, Jeri would cease to exercise his functions and be replaced by the head of parliament as interim president.
But first a new parliamentary president would have to be elected, as the incumbent is acting in an interim capacity.
“It will be difficult to find a replacement with political legitimacy in the current Congress, with evidence of mediocrity and strong suspicion of widespread corruption,” political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP.
Peru is experiencing a prolonged political crisis, which has seen it burn through six presidents since 2016, several of them impeached or under investigation for wrongdoing.
It is also gripped by a wave of extortion that has claimed dozens of lives, particularly of bus drivers — some shot at the wheel if their companies refuse to pay protection money.
In two years, the number of extortion cases reported in Peru jumped more than tenfold — from 2,396 to over 25,000 in 2025.
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