US President Donald Trump said he was open to attending the potential peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday, as the US ramps up pressure on Moscow and Kyiv to bring an end to the three-year conflict.

By Tom Balmforth, Yuliia Dysa and Steve Holland KYIV/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey later this week as European countries pushed to get the Kremlin to accept their demand for a 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Trump's surprise offer to join the talks on Thursday in Istanbul came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel Turkey and wait to meet President Vladimir Putin there.