Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says he will be waiting for Russian leader Putin in Ankara on Thursday for talks

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV Ukraine AP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Tuesday that he will be waiting for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Turkish capital this week to conduct face-to-face talks about the more than three-year war Putin hasn t yet declared 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 described reporters in Kyiv that he will be in Ankara on Thursday to conduct the negotiations He plans to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the two will wait for Putin to arrive he stated Zelenskyy mentioned that if Putin chooses Istanbul to hold the meeting then both leaders will passage there If Putin does not arrive and plays games it is the final point that he does not want to end the war Zelenskyy disclosed The Ukrainian leader added that European and U S leaders should follow through with threats of powerful sanctions against Russia if Putin doesn t show up for talks Overnight Russia launched Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine the Ukrainian air force mentioned in its 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 refused for the second straight day Tuesday to tell reporters whether Putin will excursion to Istanbul and who else will represent Russia at the likely talks As soon as the president considers it necessary we will make an announcement Peskov reported Russia has noted that it would send a delegation to Istanbul without preconditions Washington has been applying stiff pressure on both sides to come to the table since U S President Donald 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 Assessment of War a Washington-based think tank noted Monday that Russia is expeditiously replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative Zelenskyy won t be meeting with any Russian officers in Istanbul other than Putin Mykhailo Podolyak an adviser to Zelenskyy explained Tuesday on a YouTube show run by prominent Russian journalists in exile Lower-level talks would amount to completely dragging out any peace process Podolyak reported European leaders have in recent days 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 demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders from Monday 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 declared Tuesday Negotiations are impossible while the Ukrainian people are under attack by Russian missiles and drones around the clock Yermak reported in a video address to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit Putin has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian establishment especially Zelenskyy himself saying his term expired last year Under Ukraine s constitution it s illegal for the country to hold a national voting while it s under martial law as it now is In a further complication a Ukrainian decree from rules out negotiations with Putin U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday with the senior diplomats from the United Kingdom France Germany and Poland who were meeting in London to assess the way forward for a ceasefire and path to peace in Ukraine spokesperson Tammy Bruce revealed Those European countries had pledged further sanctions on Russia if Moscow didn t comply with a full ceasefire that Ukraine had accepted from Monday but they made no announcement of additional punitive measures