内容摘要：Wedad Abdelaal and her husband Ammar , feed their 9 month old son Khaled, in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Wedad Abdelaal and her husband Ammar , feed their 9 month old son Khaled, in their tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Mawasi Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will be waiting for his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Turkish capital this week to conduct face-to-face talks about, 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 U.S. President Donald Trump has urged the two sides to attend as part of Washington’sZelenskyy 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 U.S. leaders should follow through with threats of additional and heavy sanctions against Russia.

, said Tuesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would attend the talks. Special envoy Steve Witkoff also is set to take part, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview plans that have not been made public.Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which border Russia and its Kaliningrad exclave, announced plans to close their airspace to the planes carrying Serbia’s and Slovakia’s leaders to Moscow this week for the celebrations out of safety concerns, officials there said.

“Who could deny that in such a quite active cyber background … that somebody will not use this as a possible provocation to create problems and risks for the flight of these people through the Republic of Lithuania,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said Wednesday.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in comments to Russian state TV, called the move “a disgrace.”

Flight restrictions across Russia because of Ukrainian drone threats, including temporary closures at airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi and elsewhere, affected at least 350 flights and at least 60,000 passengers, the Russian Tour Operators Association said.Russian public holidays in early May, including the days around Victory Day, is a popular time for many Russians to go on vacation and travel abroad.