President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that if President Trump attended the talks, it would put pressure Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, to meet face-to-face.

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.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's willingness to hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week in Istanbul sparked a question over whether such a move contradicts his earlier decree.