The United States and Russia will hold talks on April 10 in Istanbul to restore some of their embassies' operations, which have been drastically reduced since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The US State Department announced the meeting.

The talks, the second of their kind, come after President Donald Trump reached out to Russia after beginning his second term and offered better ties if it ended hostilities in Ukraine.

The two countries "will try to make progress in further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

"There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not - absolutely not - on the agenda. These talks are focused solely on the activities of our embassies, not on normalizing bilateral relations," she said.

The talks are continuing despite Russia's rejection of a US-backed proposal by Ukraine for a 30-day ceasefire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regretted the lack of response from the US.

A day later, Trump said he was not happy that Russia was "bombing like crazy right now."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier said it was important for both the United States and Russia to reopen more staff at their embassies to improve contacts, regardless of the situation in Ukraine. | BGNES