The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has conveyed Thursday to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the need for a «unilateral ceasefire» to promote peace negotiations to end the war with Ukraine, unleashed on February 24, 2022 by the invasion order given by the Russian president.
The Turkish Presidency said in a statement published on its website that Erdogan had told Putin during a telephone conversation that «calls for peace and negotiations must be supported by a unilateral ceasefire and a vision for a just solution».
He has also highlighted the «positive results» of negotiations for the agreement on grain exports from Ukrainian ports, prisoner exchanges and the initiative for the creation of a «safe zone» around the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
For its part, the Kremlin confirmed that «the situation around Ukraine has been addressed» during the conversation and revealed that Putin criticized the «destructive role of Western countries, which deliver weapons and military equipment to the Kiev regime, as well as operational information and identification of targets».
«Putin has reaffirmed Russia’s readiness for a serious dialogue, provided that the Kiev authorities comply with the well-known (Russian) demands and take into account the new reality on the ground,» he said, referring to the annexation of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporiyia regions, partially occupied in the framework of the war.
Erdogan later said during an event in Turkey that he will hold a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski, on Thursday. «We will discuss the meeting with Putin and how we can improve relations between Russia and Ukraine,» he said, as reported by the Turkish state news agency Anatolia.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
