From: CNN By Jessie Yeung, Ivana Kottasová, Svitlana Vlasova, Nick Paton Walsh and Andrew Carey
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the stakes ahead of a potential meeting 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-sanctions ultimatum given to Moscow by Kyiv’s European allies on Saturday.
Asked by CNN about the goals of the possible meeting – one Putin has not yet agreed to attend despite proposing it himself – Zelensky said anything other than a ceasefire agreement would be a failure.
Aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar Wednesday, Trump suggested he could travel to Turkey for the talks, and that Putin wanted him to attend.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility,” Trump told CNN. “I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there.”
Voice of Ukraine 