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Turkey on Friday proposed to host a meeting between the American, Russian and Ukrainian presidents in an effort to advance toward an end of the three years of war in Ukraine.

NATO member Turkey, which has strove to maintain relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has become a key mediator amid US president Donald Trump’s push for a deal to end the fighting.

‘We sincerely think that it is possible to cap the first and second direct Istanbul talks with a meeting between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, under the direction of Recep Tayyip Erdogan,’ foreign minister Hakan Fidan said while on a visit to Kyiv.

‘We can either close our eyes to the continuation of this war, or to reach a durable peace before the end of the year,’ Fidan said. ‘Expectations for a ceasefire and peace have increased.’

‘Progress can certainly be made as long as we remain at the negotiating table,’ added Fidan, who was to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv later in the day.

Meanwhile, A wave of massive Russian aerial attacks has stretched Ukraine’s air defences, raising fears about Kyiv’s reliance on Western systems to protect its skies in the fourth year of Russia’s invasion.

As the two sides open peace talks and Kyiv pushes for an immediate ceasefire, Moscow has launched its heaviest air assaults of the war, pummelling Ukraine with more than 900 drones and 90 missiles in a three-day barrage last weekend.

Ukraine downed over 80 per cent of the incoming projectiles, but more than a dozen people were killed.

Experts worry how long the country can fend off the nightly attacks if Russia maintains — or escalates — its strikes.

‘Ukraine’s air defences are stretched thin and cannot guarantee protection for all cities against persistent and sophisticated Russian attacks,’ military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady said.

Russia’s drone and missile attacks have become more complex — and harder to thwart — throughout the war.

Kyiv’s air force says around 40 per cent of drones launched recently are decoys — cheaper dummy craft that mimic attack drones and are designed to exhaust and confuse air defences.

Russia increasingly sets drones to fly at a higher altitude — above 2,000 metres — and then dive down onto targets.

‘At that altitude, they’re more visible to our radars but unreachable for small arms, heavy machine guns and mobile fire teams,’ air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told RBK Ukraine.

In addressing the threat, Ukraine is trying to strike a balance between pressing the West to deliver new systems and not wanting to concern a war-weary public at home.

‘There’s no need to panic,’ a Ukraine military source said.

‘We’re using all air defence systems that are available in Ukraine now, plus helicopters and aircraft. We are fighting somehow,’ they said.