German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he and the leaders of Britain, France and Poland aim to talk with Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential plan to go directly to Russia-Russia-Russia-Ukraine in Istananbul in the plan of U.S. rival Vladimir Putin.
Meles said in a speech to reporters on Sunday that he discussed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was participating in the Vatican's first Pope Leo XIV mass. Meers said he also gave a detailed speech at the Vatican with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"I had a conversation with Marco Rubio, including tomorrow's call. We agree that we will be speaking again with four state leaders and the U.S. president in preparation for this conversation (with Putin)" Melz said.
Trump said he plans to talk to Putin and Zelenskyy to discuss ways to stop the "blood" of the war.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that he was preparing for a dialogue between Putin and Trump.
On Friday, talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul were the first face-to-face talks between the two since March 2022, weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbors.
According to the heads of the two delegations, the brief talks reached a deal to exchange only 1,000 prisoners of war, the largest exchange since the war began.
Russian negotiators asked Ukraine to withdraw its troops from all Ukrainian areas claimed by Moscow, and then they agreed to a ceasefire, a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the negotiations said. For Ukraine, this is a red line, and for now, Russia does not have full control in these regions.
Meanwhile, according to sources from the Ukrainian delegation, Zelenskyy met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Rubio at the Pope's inauguration. This is the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Vance as they openly clashed in talks held at the White House in February on the future of the Ukrainian war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claims Russia plans to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile later on Sunday to intimidate it and its Western allies.
Ukrainian military intelligence agency Gur said Russia is planning to launch missiles "training and combat" on it.
Gur said in a statement on the Telegram app that the launch was carried out from Russia's Sverdlovsk area, adding that the missile's flight range exceeded 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).
Ukraine also said on Sunday that Russia has launched record drones overnight, targeting various regions including those in which women were killed.
Its air force said Russia launched "273 Shahed attack drones and various imitation drones", of which 88 were destroyed and 128 went astray, with "no negative consequences".
Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a "record" number of drones. "Russia has a clear goal - to continue killing civilians," she said.
"The sirens of the air strikes began and they lasted for nearly nine hours," said Zein Basravi of Al Jazeera on the night of the night.
"We've seen these huge drone strikes, we've seen a large number of people seeking shelter, and people seeking safety again in deep metro stations in the capital and other parts of the country," Baslawi said.
The Russian military said it intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. It also claimed that it had captured Bahathir, another village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, despite negotiations, and also intensified the war effort.
Ukrainian officials condemned Russia's overnight drone attack.
Zelenskyy reiterated his call for stronger sanctions on Moscow after he killed nine bus passengers in northeastern Ukraine after killing nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine. "This is a deliberate killing of civilians," he said.
"The pressure must be put on Russia to stop the murder. Without tougher sanctions, without greater pressure, Russia will not seek true diplomacy."
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, says it attacked military targets in Sumy. Its Ministry of Defense claims to have captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy's top assistant Andriy Yermak also condemned the attack.
"For Russia, the negotiations in Istanbul are just a pretend. Putin wants a war," said Yermak.
In an interview with Russian state television, Putin said Moscow's purpose is to "eliminate the causes of this crisis, create conditions for lasting peace, and ensure Russia's security" without further elaboration.
Russia’s reference to the “root cause” of the conflict usually refers to the legitimate reason why Moscow launched an invasion in February 2022.
These include protecting Russian spokespersons in the east of the country with promises of “Nazi” and demilitarizing Ukraine, opposing NATO expansion and preventing Western geopolitical drifts in Ukraine.
Ukraine and the West rejected everyone, saying that Russia's offense was nothing more than imperial-style land.
Since the war broke out in Russia, tens of thousands have been killed and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
Putin said that about 20% of Ukraine's Russian army has the "troop and means" to achieve its goals.
Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov spoke to each other on Saturday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. A department spokesman said on the phone, Rubio welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached in Istanbul.
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's top negotiator, said the "next step" will be a meeting between the two warring presidents.
Russia said this had noticed the request, but added that the exchange of prisoners of war must be completed first, and then both sides need to propose a vision of a ceasefire before arranging the next round of negotiations.