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.

Ukraine rallied support from its Western allies on Friday after Kyiv and Moscow failed to agree to a ceasefire at their first direct talks in more than three years, with Russia presenting conditions that a Ukrainian source described as "non-starters".

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.

The announcement was made ahead of an expected prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia on Friday – an outcome of last week’s face-to-face talks in Turkey, the first time the two countries have held direct talks at any level in three years.

It follows Donald Trump saying Russia and Ukraine will "immediately" start negotiating, after a two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian officials and analysts say Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has few options but to draw U.S. President Donald Trump’s ire against Vladimir Putin, while depending on Europe’s support

Russia has battered Ukraine overnight with its largest drone attack since the war began, Ukraine’s military said Sunday, as Moscow intensified its military assault despite holding direct peace talks with Kyiv Friday.

European leaders are viewed as “quietly sabotaging” President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate a compromise end to the war in Ukraine. -While Trump’s approach is transactional and realist, focused on stopping the killing by recognizing Ukraine’s limited leverage and Russia’s need for a sellable “victory,