Russian and Ukrainian delegates have begun their third set of direct talks in Istanbul, days after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to make peace or face “very severe tariffs.”

Ukraine says such a settlement would amount to capitulation and the end of its sovereignty, and insists that Russia withdraw its troops from all Ukrainian territory and pay for the devastation caused by armed aggression that began in 2014 and escalated into full-scale war in 2022.