Erdogan: Turkey is ready to mediate in the Ukrainian conflict

Ankara is ready to mediate over Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“In each of my speeches, I note: there is no winner of the war, there is no conquered world. We adhere to this principled approach. Earlier, we held direct talks between the parties. As always, we are ready to make our contribution in this regard,” Erdogan reminded.

In turn, Putin stressed that the Turkish leader has always paid and continues to pay great attention to resolving the situation in Ukraine, under him agreements were reached with the Ukrainian side and documents were coordinated.

“And then Ukraine sent them to a landfill,” the Russian president explained.

Since the beginning of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the parties have held talks several times in February and March 2022. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus in February-March, and the fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue was held on March 29, 2022 in Istanbul. After that, the process was frozen, since Kyiv withdrew from it. On October 4, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree refusing to negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is its president.

Zelensky in the fall of 2022 presented a “peace formula”, according to which Ukraine must preserve its territorial integrity. Moscow called the presented plan unrealistic.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that it is open to negotiations, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will not follow someone else’s conditions, since it focuses only on its own goals and common sense.