President Trump said Thursday he wasn’t at all surprised Russian President Vladimir Putin was snubbing peace-talks with Ukraine this week — saying “Why would he go if I’m not going?” Trump, who had pushed for Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey later on Thursday,

By Tom Balmforth and Vladimir Soldatkin ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a second-tier team of negotiators to hold peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, spurning Kyiv's challenge to go there in person to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

President Trump said Thursday he was not surprised that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a no-show for peace talks with Ukraine being held in Turkey, attributing it to his own absence. “I actually said,