Zelenskyy says he will be waiting for Putin in Ankara on Thursday for talks

KYIV Ukraine AP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared Tuesday that he will be waiting for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Turkish capital this week to conduct face-to-face talks about the more than -year war amid heavy pressure from the U S and European leaders to reach a settlement Putin hasn t yet revealed whether he will be at the talks which U S President Donald Trump has urged the two sides to attend as part of Washington s efforts to stop the fighting Zelenskyy communicated reporters in Kyiv that he will be in Ankara on Thursday to conduct the negotiations He will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two will wait for Putin to arrive he announced Zelenskyy explained he would do everything to agree on a ceasefire because it is with Putin that I must negotiate a ceasefire as only he can decide on it Zelenskyy stated that if Putin chooses Istanbul to hold the meeting then both leaders will expedition there from Ankara If Putin does not arrive and plays games it is the final point that he does not want to end the war Zelenskyy explained The Ukrainian leader added that if Putin doesn t show up European and U S leaders should follow through with threats of additional and heavy sanctions against Russia Trump who is on a four-day Middle East trip declared Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would attend the talks Special envoy Steve Witkoff also is set to take part according to a U S official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview plans that have not been made citizens Washington has been applying strong pressure on both sides to come to the table since Trump took office in January with a promise to end the war Military analysts say that both sides are preparing a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield where a war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly -kilometer -mile front line The Institute for the Investigation of War a Washington-based think tank declared Monday that Russia is hastily replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative German leader says ball is in Putin s court International pressure has been growing to push Ukraine and Russia into finding a settlement German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pressed again for an unconditional -day ceasefire as he met his Greek counterpart in Berlin on Tuesday We are waiting for Putin s agreement he noted We agree that in matter there is no real progress this week we then want to push at European level for a important tightening of sanctions Merz added He explained that we will focus on further areas such as the vigor sector and the financial industry Merz welcomed Zelenskyy s readiness to trip personally to Turkey but now it is really up to Putin to accept this offer of negotiations and agree to a ceasefire The ball is exclusively in Russia Russia isn t saying whether Putin will attend talks Overnight Russia launched Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine the Ukrainian air force noted It was Russia s smallest drone bombardment this year The Kremlin hasn t directly responded to Zelenskyy s challenge for Putin to meet him in person at the negotiating table Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined for the second straight day Tuesday to tell reporters whether Putin will trip to Istanbul and who else will represent Russia at the foreseen talks As soon as the president considers it necessary we will make an announcement Peskov commented Russia has declared that it will send a delegation to Istanbul without preconditions European leaders say Putin is dragging his feet Zelenskyy won t be meeting with any Russian agents in Istanbul other than Putin Mykhailo Podolyak an adviser to Zelenskyy reported Tuesday on a YouTube show run by prominent Russian journalists in exile Lower-level talks would amount to totally dragging out any peace process Podolyak stated European leaders have in recent months accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he attempts to press his bigger army s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land Russia effectively rejected an unconditional -day ceasefire starting Monday that was demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders when it fired more than drones at Ukraine Putin instead offered direct peace talks But the wrangling over whether a ceasefire should come before the talks begin has continued Ukraine is ready for any format of negotiations with Russia but a ceasefire must come first Andrii Yermak the head of Ukraine s presidential office mentioned Tuesday Negotiations are impossible while the Ukrainian people are under attack by Russian missiles and drones around the clock Yermak declared in a video address to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit Putin has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leadership especially Zelenskyy himself saying his term expired last year Under Ukraine s constitution it s illegal for the country to hold a national ballot while it s under martial law as it now is Zelenskyy dismissed asserts that a decree enacted by him in prohibited him from meeting Putin saying that the claim was Russian propaganda Putin and Zelenskyy have only met once in In the war s early months Zelenskyy repeatedly called for a personal meeting with Putin but was rebuffed After the Kremlin s decision in September to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine Donetsk Luhansk Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Zelenskyy issued the decree declaring that holding negotiations with Putin had become impossible On Tuesday Zelenskyy commented that this decree affected other Ukrainian executives who were directly negotiating with the Russian leader