内容摘要：Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among U.S. officials due to be in Turkey for the talks.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among U.S. officials due to be in Turkey for the talks.

The couple were inseparable. Zavadska cheered Khudia in his basketball games and encouraged him as he pursued his driver’s license. She helped him study for exams and consoled him when he mentioned being cheated in a money-making scam.When Zavadska expressed interest in tattoo art, Khudia agreed to be her guinea pig. She tattooed him with an alien, a scorpion, a design of the moon.

Zavadska opened up, too. She told Khudia she had an eating disorder. He helped her overcome it.“She didn’t believe she was beautiful,” her mother said. “He made her believe she is.”Alyona Zavadska, 16, sits in a gazebo where she had her first date with boyfriend Danylo Khudia, 17, who was killed in a Russian strike on April 24, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Alyona Zavadska, 16, sits in a gazebo where she had her first date with boyfriend Danylo Khudia, 17, who was killed in a Russian strike on April 24, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)In recent weeks, as the U.S. pressed for peace talks, the couple found an apartment a few blocks from Zavadska’s parents. They opened a bank account and prepared to build a life.

But they could never hide from war.

Six months ago, Zavadska had dreamed Khudia’s house would be destroyed in a missile strike. It was eerie, but she thought no more of it.“The task of these direct negotiations with Ukraine is to establish long-term peace sooner or later by eliminating the root causes of this conflict,” he said in a brief statement.

It was not clear when they would meet. Medinsky said late Thursday that the Russian delegation would be waiting for Ukrainian officials at 10 a.m. Friday.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would confer Friday in Istanbul with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and the Ukrainian delegation, adding that the Russian delegation would be meeting with other members of the U.S. team and that he hoped all sides could get together.

“We don’t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow. And frankly, at this point, I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters in Antalya, Turkey, where he was attending aTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier welcomed Zelenskyy to the presidential palace in Ankara for their own talks. Zelenskyy heads Friday to Albania for a gathering of European officials.