Russian and Ukrainian delegates have begun their third set of direct talks in Istanbul, days after US President Donald Trump gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to make peace or face “very severe tariffs.”

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul on Wednesday for their first peace talks in more than seven weeks, with Moscow under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal or face tough new sanctions.

Vasily Astrov, expert on the Russian economy at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, told Newsweek that "inflation has really subsided markedly over the past few months. The outcome of this policy has been a marked cooling of domestic demand, with the welcome side effect of rapid disinflation.

The long-range Russian drones come in swarms each night, buzzing over Ukraine by the hundreds, terrorizing the population and attacking targets from the industrial east to areas near its western border with Poland.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams will again meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed, for the first such meeting since President Donald Trump set a 50-day deadline for a ceasefire to be reached.

Russia has advanced around Pokrovsk for many months, but has so far failed to entirely encircle or seize control of the city.

Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped via front companies to a state-owned drone manufacturer in Russia, labelled as "industrial refrigeration units" to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions,