Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that he achieved an agreement with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to organize a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
This is reported by CNN Turk.
Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Ukraine, where he held talks with Vladimir Zelensky, discussing, among other things, Ankara’s desire to mediate the settlement in Donbas.
Upon his return from Ukraine, Erdogan told reporters that he had once again proposed to contribute to the de-escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
"On the occasion of our visit, we once again stressed our support for the sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Unfortunately, tensions between Ukraine and Russia are growing. We specifically informed Mr. Zelensky that we are ready to make the necessary contribution to the de-escalation," he said.
Earlier, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stated that Erdogan invited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to "resolve disagreements" between the two states.
According to CNN, the Kremlin responded positively.
"[Moscow] responded positively to our invitation to visit Turkey after Mr. Putin’s visit to China. We will define the date now, and then, I hope, we want to hold a high-level meeting, to gather Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky. We have achieved an agreement with Mr. Zelensky in this regard," Erdogan said, according to CNN Turk.
However, on Friday, February 4, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky in Turkey is currently not being discussed in practice. According to Peskov, "the president says that he is ready to meet with anyone for business, but there must be an understanding of what will be discussed and what such talks should achieve."
"There is no such understanding yet," he added.