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Representatives from Russia and Ukraine are still slated to hold their first direct peace talks in three years,
though hopes for any major breakthrough have dimmed after Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on his way to the United Arab Emirates, U.S.
President Donald Trump said he had planned to possibly go to Turkey as well,
but said that won't be happening now.
Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, okay?
And obviously he wasn't going to go.
He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go.
He wasn't going if I wasn't there.
And I don't believe anything's going to happen,
whether you like it or not, until he and I get together.
But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.
The fact Putin was a no-show was not a surprise to many observers.