Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met Thursday morning with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, before the latter held a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, with the aim of ending the war in Ukraine since February 24. The Ukrainian minister played down the expected results. From his meeting with Lavrov.
Government officials from Kyiv and Moscow have met in 3 rounds of peace talks since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine, but it is the first time that Russia and Ukraine have sent their foreign ministers for discussions on the crisis.
The Turkish Foreign Minister said yesterday, Wednesday, that he hopes that the meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers will be a "turning point", and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, Wednesday, "We are working to prevent this crisis from turning into a tragedy," expressing his hope that "the meeting between the two ministers will pave the way." permanent cease-fire.
Yesterday evening, Wednesday, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Kuleba had arrived in Antalya "for talks on the cessation of hostilities and an end to the war waged by Russia on Ukraine."
previous conversations
Talks between Kyiv and Moscow have so far resulted in a temporary ceasefire in the past two days, and the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, but Russia is accused of violating those agreements, which it denies.
⚡️ Based on an agreement reached during a phone call between the presidents of Russia and Turkey, and at the initiative of the Turkish side, it is planned to hold a meeting between Russian Foreign Ministers #Sergey_Lavrov and Ukrainian Dmitry Kuleba, with the participation of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, during the Antalya Diplomatic Forum on March 10.
pic.twitter.com/mj6oKBfkoW
— 🇷🇺 Russia in Arabic (@Russia_AR) March 7, 2022
And the Ukrainian Foreign Minister had said in a video clip on Facebook that he "does not pin high hopes" on the talks, in light of Russia's continuing campaign of bombing and besieging major Ukrainian cities, and Kuleba added that the success of the talks will depend on "instructions and instructions given by the Kremlin to Lavrov," explaining, "No." I have high hopes for them, but we will try to make the most of the talks."
The Ukrainian minister urged his Russian counterpart to deal with today's talks in Turkey "in good faith and not from a propaganda perspective."
In return, Moscow has said it is ready for talks with Ukraine, but that all of Russia's demands to end the offensive must be met, which include Kyiv adopting neutrality between Russia and the West and abandoning its bid to join NATO.
nuclear security
In addition to their bilateral meeting, Lavrov and Kuleba will also participate Thursday in the meeting with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, to hold talks with the aim of "making progress on the urgent issue of safety and security of Ukraine's nuclear facilities."
So far, Russian forces control two nuclear plants in Ukraine: Chernobyl, near the border with Belarus, and the Zaporozhye plant in southeastern Ukraine.
And Antalya's trip is the first for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov outside his country since Western powers imposed tough sanctions on Moscow in response to its war on neighboring Ukraine.
The sanctions included closing the airspace of Europe, the United States, Canada and other countries to Russian aircraft, as well as Washington's ban on travel to it for both Lavrov, Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of Russian officials.