Russia, Ukraine negotiators meet in Turkey for US-led peace talks, after failed start

Secretary of State Marco Rubio began talks between delegations for Ukraine and Russia in Turkey on Friday, while the presidents of the three countries in the negotiations were absent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Albania while Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in Moscow and President Trump is in Abu Dhabi, ABC News reported.

Trump said Friday that he wants to meet with Putin "as soon as we can set it up" to have peace talks and end the war in Ukraine.

"We're going to do it,” Trump said. “I actually think it's time for us to do it," he said.

"I will tell you that the world is a much safer place right now, and I think in two or three weeks we could have it be a much, much safer place," Trump continued. "We're going to handle a couple of situations that you have here with some very serious situations. and we're looking at Gaza, and we've got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There's a lot of bad things going on."

"We're going to get it done," Trump also said regarding peace talks. "Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we're going to get it done."