It was already hard to imagine a breakthrough emerging from the direct talks between Russia and Ukraine set to be renewed in Istanbul on Monday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of peace talks on Monday.

Moscow’s dual campaign of intensified frontline attacks and bombardment of Ukrainian cities has further reduced the prospects for an end to the fighting.

One of the hardest-hit areas was the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where 17 attack drones struck two residential districts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Russian negotiators told the Ukrainian delegation directly that their so-called "peace memorandum" is an ultimatum Kyiv cannot accept, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Hungarian news outlet Valasz Online published on June 10.

President Donald Trump and Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, will meet Thursday at the White House to talk about the ongoing war in Ukraine.