The US and European leaders are placing their hopes in the Vatican to engage Russia and Ukraine in peace talks, after President Donald Trump said Pope Leo XIV had expressed interest in the idea. The Kremlin isn’t so keen.

Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscow's invasion in 2022 and days after U.

A Kremlin spokesman says Russia and Ukraine have no scheduled direct peace talks. The statement Thursday came nearly a week after their first face-to-face meeting since the early weeks of Moscow's invasion in 2022 and days after U.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said after a two-hour call with Vladimir Putin that peace talks would begin “immediately” after his Russian counterpart refused to attend negotiations May 15 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin said efforts to end the war were "generally on the right track" and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal.

Kyiv’s European allies have slapped new sanctions on Moscow, a day after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

Major Moscow airports shut after Kyiv’s overnight drone strikes - Flight operations suspended at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports

Pope Leo XIV may have offered to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks at the Vatican, but neither the pope nor senior Vatican officials have spoken publicly about the possibility, leaving prospects for such talks uncertain.