By Faith Barbara N Ruhinda Updated at 1344 EAT on Wednesday 14 May 2025

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the stakes ahead of a potential meetin with Vladimir Putin  in Turkey by saying he wouldn’t hold talks with any Russian representative other than the president himself.

Zelensky said he would travel to Turkey after US President Donald Trump urged him to meet Putin. The Russian leader had suggested direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in the country on Thursday in response to the ceasefire or santions ultimatum given to Moscow by Kyiv’s European allies on Saturday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend the talks in Istanbul, Trump confirmed on Tuesday.

Talks are being held in Turkey later this week, probably on Thursday, and they could produce some pretty good results, Trump said during remarks at a Saudi-US investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Trump has said he is open to going to Turkey, but the Kremlin has so far refused to say whether Putin would go. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin would announce his decision in due course. “As soon as the president considers it necessary, we will announce it,” Peskov said.

Zelensky said he would not consider meeting any other Russian representatives because everything in Russia depends on Putin.

Russia hopes to deal directly with Ukraine in Istanbul, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian state news agency TASS on Tuesday.

Our representatives are getting ready for this meeting, the news agency quoted him as saying.

It comes amid growing international pressure on Moscow to agree to the US-backed plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Tuesday that if Russia doesn’t comply with those demands, sanctions including on financial services  could be imposed in the coming days in close liaison with the United States.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based conflict monitor, said on Monday that Russian officials already appeared to be setting conditions for Putin to reject the meeting, quoting several key aides as questioning Zelensky’s intentions and calling the proposed meeting pure spectacle.

Zelensky also said he offered Trump the option of joining the meeting, saying the presence of the US president would “give additional impulse for Putin to fly in.”

He said earlier that his country would appreciate Trump’s attendance, and said he supported the US president’s call for direct talks between himself and Putin.

Top Trump administration officials plan to be in Turkey this week, but the president’s possible attendance remains an open question that will largely be dictated by whether his Russian counterpart attends, according to a senior administration official

Whether Trump attends or not, US envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg and Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff both plan to be in Istanbul for the talks, the senior administration official said.

Another source familiar with the plans also confirmed Witkoff’s attendance. As of Tuesday, the plan was for the US officials to observe the Turkish-facilitated talks between the Ukrainians and Russians.

For months, Ukraine and its allies tried to convince the Trump administration that Putin acts in bad faith, and have said Russia’s agreeing to a ceasefire could function as a test of whether it is serious about achieving the peace the US president has long demanded.

Putin ignored the ultimatum, proposing the talks instead. Direct talks between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have not happened since the early weeks of Moscow’s unprovoked full-scale invasion in 2022.

Speaking on Tuesday, Zelensky said he expects the US and Europe to impose new strong sanctions on Russia if Moscow doesn’t sign up to the ceasefire on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine doesn’t seem to suggest Russia is preparing for a ceasefire. Russian troops have been inching forward in several key areas along the front line and launching near-daily drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities. Still, the front line in eastern Ukraine has not moved dramatically in recent months, with neither side able to break through.

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