The warring sides remain far apart after the third round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations on Wednesday. But there was progress on humanitarian issues.

Peace talks and a settlement in Ukraine have never been on the real agenda of the West, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday, in her first comments on negotiations since Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks on Wednesday.

“Just as the negotiation table (between Russia and Ukraine) was established in Istanbul, the peace table will also be established in Türkiye in the not-too-distant future, and this bloody war will come to an end,” Erdogan said, speaking after a Cabinet meeting in Ankara.