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

Zelenskyy told 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 said. Zelenskyy said that if Putin chooses Istanbul to hold the meeting, then both leaders will travel there.

Efforts to halt, or perhaps even end, the war in Ukraine hit a new phase this week — when it appears at least someone from Russia and someone else from Ukrai