Ukraine has submitted its peace terms and insisted Russia do the same before further talks, which the Kremlin has demanded take place next Monday in Turkey. “We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their memorandum,” said the Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov. “The Russian side has at least four more days before their departure to provide us with their document for review.

Diplomacy must be substantive, and the next meeting must yield results.” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said instead that a Russian team “is ready to present a memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and provide the necessary explanations during a second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, 2 June”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Wednesday called for Moscow to engage in “good-faith” talks with Ukraine in a call with Lavrov. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Wednesday accused Russia of dragging out the peace process and of not wanting to halt its offensive.

“They will constantly look for reasons not to end the war,” he said at a press conference in Berlin alongside the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Vladimir Putin promised Donald Trump that Russia would produce the “memorandum” in conjunction with Ukraine when their much-vaunted phone call took place on 19 May. Donald Trump posted on Tuesday that Putin was “playing with fire” by continuing to attack Ukraine, but on Wednesday the US president’s words sounded more tepid.

Trump said he would determine within “about two weeks” whether Putin was serious about ending the fighting. He was “very disappointed” but rebuffed calls to impose more sanctions on Moscow: “If I think I’m close to getting a deal, I don’t want to screw it up by doing that.” As Peter Beaumont writes, there has been little or no sign of a deal.