(Moscow) The Kremlin said on Wednesday it expects Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to make Vladimir Putin a concrete offer to mediate the conflict in Ukraine, while the two men meet on Thursday in Kazakhstan.
Posted at 10:14 a.m.
“The Turks offer their mediation. If (Russian-Ukrainian) contacts were to take place, they would be made on Turkish territory, Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ouchakov told the press.
“Erdogan will probably officially come up with something,” he added, adding that he expected an “interesting and useful discussion.”
Mr. Ushakov once again praised the position of Turkey, which “does not join in principle the illegitimate Western sanctions” imposed on Russia because of its offensive in Ukraine.
This “gives additional impetus to the strengthening of Russian-Turkish economic cooperation”, he said.
A member of NATO, Turkey, very dependent on Russian gas and oil, has endeavored since the Russian offensive of February 24 to maintain its relationship with Ukraine and Russia.
Ankara played a key role in a prisoner exchange in September between Russia and Ukraine and in the conclusion in July, under the aegis of the UN, of an agreement between the two countries allowing the export of Ukrainian cereals via the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.
Twice, in March, it also brought together Russian and Ukrainian representatives on its soil for negotiations which ultimately failed, the two camps rejecting responsibility for it.
Mr Erdogan has met Mr Putin three times in the past three months and speaks regularly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Turkish president poses as a privileged mediator and has long advocated talks between the two men.
Again on Tuesday, the head of Turkish diplomacy, Mevlut Cavusoglu, called on Russia and Ukraine for a ceasefire “as soon as possible”.
“The sooner the better,” he said in a television interview.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated on Tuesday, in a speech before an emergency virtual meeting of the leaders of the G7 countries, that there was nothing to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, who claimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions in September, in addition to that of Crimea in 2014.
Reacting to these remarks, Yuri Ouchakov remarked to the press on Wednesday: “I would like to tell him that you should never say ‘never'”.