Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday his goal is to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine “as soon as possible”, despite difficulties on the battlefield, to avoid further deaths.
“Our goal is to maintain the momentum already achieved, despite the difficulties on the ground, and to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible to stop the bloodshed,” Erdogan said at the summit leaders’ meeting on Interaction and Trust. Measures in Asia (CICA), held in the capital of Kazakhstan.
“We have all suffered from the effects of the crisis in Ukraine, regionally and globally. I have always said that through diplomacy a just peace can be achieved,” he emphasized.
Erdogan told leaders of 20 countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, that “there is no winner in war, nor is there a just peace”.
The Turkish president, who will meet with Putin in Astana today to discuss the war in Ukraine, said that the intense joint efforts of Ankara and the UN to lift the consequences of the Russian invasion “all over the world ” were recognized, such as the Istanbul agreement on Ukrainian grain exports to alleviate the world food crisis.
Erdogan also highlighted the success of the largest prisoner exchange to date between Russia and Ukraine, in late September, in which Kiev managed to free more than 200 prisoners, including the “heroes” of the Azov regiment who defended the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the city. . Mariupol.
Russia managed to bring home 55 Russian prisoners, including a close friend of Putin, Ukrainian Viktor Medvedchuk.
The Turkish head of state has tried to mediate in the war in Ukraine, in which Ankara is diplomatically supporting Kiev, but without imposing sanctions on Russia and maintaining good relations with Moscow.
Erdogan and Putin are meeting today for the fourth time this year, and the Kremlin believes the Turkish president will officially present his proposals on possible negotiations between Moscow and the West to his Russian counterpart.
The Turkish newspaper Milliyet recently indicated that Turkey is ready to organize talks between Russia, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, a plan that has already been presented to Washington and whose first impressions would have been “positive”.
In turn, Putin will have to explain to Erdogan his proposal to create a major Russian gas distribution center for Europe in Turkey in light of the leaks that completely disabled Nord Stream 1 and partially Nord Stream 2 and the European Union’s intent ( EU) by not resuming the flow of Russian hydrocarbons through these pipelines.
Source: DN
