President Donald Trump said he is still willing to travel to Turkey on Friday if enough progress is made in the Istanbul peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. "I was thinking about going...If something happened, I'd go on Friday if it was appropriate," Trump, who is in the Middle East for a four-day tour, said during his visit to Qatar.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the possibility of scrapping his Middle East travel schedule and adding a stop to personally mediate Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey.

Turkey is ready to host negotiations for a ceasefire and permanent peace between Russia and Ukraine, President Tayyip Erdogan told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Sunday, Erdogan's office said.

Ukraine had framed Zelensky's demand for a face-to-face meeting with Putin as a test of Russia's true willingness to negotiate peace. Arriving in Turkey, he slammed the Russian delegation as "theatrical" and contrasted it to Ukraine's high-level group.

Putin proposed immediate negotiations on Thursday in Istanbul while Europeans and Trump were talking about a ceasefire from Monday

Turkey is ready to undertake the duty to observe a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, its foreign minister said during a "coalition of the willing" call with Kyiv's partners on Saturday, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.