KYIV, Ukraine, May 13, (AP): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will be waiting for Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Turkish capital this week to conduct face-to-face talks about the more than three-year war amid heavy pressure from the U.S. and European leaders to reach a settlement. Putin hasn't yet said whether he will be at the talks, which US President Donald Trump has urged the two sides to attend as part of Washington’s efforts to stop the fighting.

Zelenskyy told 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 said. Zelenskyy said 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 said that if Putin chooses Istanbul to hold the meeting, then both leaders will travel 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 said. The Ukrainian leader added that if Putin doesn’t show up, European and US leaders should follow through with threats of additional and heavy sanctions against Russia.

Trump has been invited to the talks, because "it would give an additional push for Putin to fly in,” but Trump hasn't confirmed his presence, Zelenskyy said. The American president will still be on his four-day Middle East trip on Thursday. 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 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Monday that Russia is "quickly replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative.”

International pressure has been growing to push Ukraine and Russia into finding a settlement. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pressed again for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire as he met his Greek counterpart in Berlin on Tuesday. "We are waiting for Putin’s agreement,” he said.