Russia, US to hold meeting in Istanbul on Thursday: Turkish diplomatic sources

Russian and American delegations will meet in Istanbul on Thursday for a technical meeting, sources from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The sources reiterated that Ankara is ready to provide all kind of support to Ukraine peace efforts, including hosting talks.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had announced a meeting between Russian and US representatives to discuss the operation of their respective embassies.

"We announced that our diplomats and high-level experts would meet and consider the systemic problems that had accumulated as a result of the illegal activities of the previous (US) administration to create artificial obstacles to the activities of the Russian embassy, to which we naturally reciprocated and also created uncomfortable conditions for the work of the American embassy in Moscow," the minister told journalists in Doha, Qatar.

Last week, US and Russian diplomats held talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties.